


Of Beans and Dark Stars

by memeshxdow



Series: Purity Heart's Champion AU [2]
Category: Mario & Luigi RPG (Video Games), Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: (but hey at least I hope it'll be good), (i apologize in advance for that), (mainly because of some Italian used later in the fic), (this is going to take me a very long time to actually finish), AU, Almost Nobody Dies This Time, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Injury, Lots of Sass From Starlow, Magical Artifacts, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Purity Heart's Champion AU, Rewrite of Canon Events, Shitty Google Translated Bits, Spoilers for Bowser's Inside Story, multi-chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-03-05 20:48:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13395951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memeshxdow/pseuds/memeshxdow
Summary: Although things have been normal in the past six or so years in the Mushroom Kingdom since the defeat of Cackletta, things have suddenly ramped up as an epidemic -- the Blorbs -- rages through the Kingdom! To make matters worse, Fawful makes a powerful comeback with a new assistant at his side, leaving both the Mushroom and Koopa kingdoms weakened. Now it's up to Bowser (and the Mario Bros) to stop Fawful before he can do any more damage!(Part one of an AU I've been working on. Will hopefully update twice a week, but will depend. First seven chapters have been crossposted from Tumblr. Contains spoilers for Bowser's Inside Story, so it's recommended to play the game before reading!)





	1. Something Sinister Comes

**Author's Note:**

> { OOOOH BOY HERE WE ARE. 
> 
> So I originally posted the first seven chapters of this over December 2017 on my tumblr, since I didn't yet have a proper account here. These first seven will be cross-posted here to the Archive, and then I will begin posting on both sites around the same time when I update. Likely, it will show up on Tumblr first, then on the Archive. Please note that there may be changes from the Tumblr version on the first seven chapters. 
> 
> Please enjoy the fic! }

It was a fairly quiet day in Toad Town, the town closest to the castle of Princess Peach. Fairly quiet _usually_ meant peaceful and safe, for the residents. Today, though, it spelt something more sinister, and that something– or rather, someone– was now arriving in town, staring into the souls of those they passed if they got stared at.

This person was in an unusual silver cloak, with golden buttons and thick glasses, and they walked into town, heading for a part of town much quieter than the rest of it, walking quickly as if they had a purpose. Waiting there at this spot was a Toad dressed in green, possessing a mustache and exactly 15 coins ready, just as this cloaked merchant had asked for. The merchant then walked up to the Toad, but cautiously.

“Are you having the money?” the merchant questioned, only after ensuring nobody was around with quick glances around. “I had the trouble to be finding the mushroom of luck for you. I hope it has the helping.”

“Yes, yes, I have the money,” the green-clad Toad answered in a typical low-toned voice, trading the coins for what looked to be a fire-red Mushroom. The coins clinked in the visitor’s cloak pocket as he happily received the funds, and he gave a nod. “I _still_ don’t know why you insisted on this being secret..”

“Well, I would rather not have the theft of luck from you if anyone had the seeing. Go on, have the deliciousness of luck!” The merchant grinned under his cloak with unusually large teeth, making the Toad feel _incredibly_ uncomfortable, but he went through with it anyway, since the merchant did say the Mushroom would help.

The green-clad Toad ate the Mushroom reluctantly, but didn’t feel anything happen, per se. He tried to say this to the cloaked merchant after the food settled into his belly, but said person had soon left, running as fast as his little legs could carry him. In confusion, he just went back home and walked to his room, after greeting his wife, who had scarlet garb on and an apron while she made dinner.

* * *

Outside of town, meanwhile, an almost hot-pink boar creature with a spiked tail and spiny back stood waiting, tapping a claw-decorated foot onto the ground in impatience. Eventually, the silver-cloaked being from before ran up, panting heavily and nearly toppling over where he stood. The boar crouched down and patted the much smaller figure on the back to help him breathe, and the figure gave a few deep breaths, coughing roughly for breath. Thankful for the patting, the boar was given a semi-shaky hug by the hooded being, shaky only due to feeling tired from such physical actions.

“T-thankings, Midbus..” the small being said, lifting his hood off of his head enough for Midbus to see him sweating intensely from running (not to mention the warm day combined with him wearing a _sweater_ of all things) with the sweat matting his tuft of jet-black hair and pooling into his sweater. The young man hated this, wiping sweat from his forehead in disgust along with a soft groan and an unseen scowl from behind the glasses. “ _Ugh_ … The sweats are having stupidity..”

“Lord Fawful. Did you give more of it today?” Midbus questioned, gesturing towards the pocket of the cloak and now once again towering over the other.

The Bean in question gave a nod, patting the pocket while little clinks sounded. “Our plan is close to having completion. Now we have to have the waiting for the king of Koopa and stupidity to have the arriving. I am having the Mushroom of suction ready.”

Fawful pulled out a yellow-and-purple-and-green Mushroom for Midbus to see, which had closed eyes, unlike most Mushrooms. It had taken some work and a bit of research of the writings he’d retrieved a long time ago from his old home to find both the Vacuum Mushroom and a special mushroom simply called the Blorbs by the people of Toad Town. It caused them to blow up like a balloon, and it both amused Fawful as well as devising a distraction that would allow Bowser to take care of things, all without knowing it when the time came.

All that was needed was patience for all to fall into place. No matter just _how_ long it took. 

* * *

A woman with a soft pink dress and blonde hair paced around the large room, which had a big, long table and was in the process of being readied for the meeting. The projector was already set up, already turned on with the presentation ready to go for the pictures various Toad-owned news outlets had gathered, all in sepia color. She was very worried, even more than some may expect.

Peach had heard the rumors of the Blorbs spreading since Ludwig’s concert in the Beanbean Kingdom, his debut that she had been sadly unable to attend in person, but had at least gotten a CD of the music sent with a radio to listen to it with. Apparently, Ludwig Von Koopa had made it big in the music world, with tons of praise pouring in for him despite who his father was. That was better to think about than this strange epidemic that tottled on being a pandemic. Which currently was in at least 12 known Toad villages and towns all over the Mushroom Kingdom, including a town that happened to be a sister town to Little Fungitown of the Beanbean Kingdom, according to Prince Peasley’s recent letter about his worries.

The princess sighed, putting a hand on her chin in thought. All the information she’d gotten was that an unusual merchant had been distributing food to Toads that eventually got the Blorbs in the known locations over the past few months, and even then nobody could ever figure the person out or cure the Blorbs. It scared her to know that this was happening to her people, but she hoped that the meeting Toadsworth called would help. Although she had absolutely _insisted_ that Bowser be invited just in case the pandemic spread to his kingdom, but apparently Toadsworth just didn’t listen to her, due to some _“anonymous tip”_ that he _“couldn’t be trusted”_. Who knows what would happen since he wasn’t invited? This was _imperative_ for him to be involved in, too, if she had involved the Star Sprites!

Before more thoughts could be made towards the matters in mind, she soon saw the Toad mayors arrive from the surrounding areas of Toad Town and Toad Town’s own mayor, now filling the room and seating themselves at the long, U-shaped table. It was time to begin the meeting, and as Toadsworth came up to her with the list of people he’d invited for her, she had to take a deep breath before she began.

This was going to be _quite_ difficult.


	2. A Terrible Crisis and the Shooting Starlow

The green-clad Toad- or rather, Virid T.- had begun to feel strange once he had sat down to read the _Kingdom Courier_ , the usual newspaper that ran straight out of Toad Town and reported on all strange and usual happenings in the entire Mushroom Kingdom, and sometimes stories from the neighboring kingdoms such as the Koopa or Beanbean Kingdoms. 

Again, came the story about the Blorbs. It kind of frightened him quite a lot, which made him wonder if the “weird merchant”, who had only given a name of ‘Gera’, had something to do with this, considering the stories kept mentioning a “weird merchant”.. After all, Gera had asked that Virid keep their meeting a secret. And Gera had given him a weird Mushroom. _So why…?_

Virid gave out a painful hiss as a sudden cramp fired up in his stomach, almost dropping the Kingdom Courier in the process. Even his mustache twitched as more pain rippled through him, and he felt bloated. _Bloated? Oh, sweet mercy of the Star Spirits_ , he thought, squeezing his eyes shut in agony. 

“ _Dad_! Dinner’s ready!” Wide-eyed with fear, he fell off his chair, dropping his newspaper and toppling onto the ground. A young Toad child came into the room, his own small eyes filling with worry and apprehension with his dad’s lack of an answer. It was Toadles, Virid T.’s son, and currently Virid was regretting eating that weird Mushroom Gera had sold him. 

“..Dad?” 

“S-son..” the green-clad Toad tried to say, but the bloated feeling got so bad he felt like he was blacking out, feeling his body stretch until he started to roll right into the wall. Toadles ran out to the kitchen after screaming, and he spoke within fear to his mother, panicking quite a lot, as was usual for the mass majority of Toads. 

“What’s wrong, dear? What happened, Toadles?” 

“It’s Dad! He’s…!” 

Virid heard more screaming when he finally rolled through the wall when the bloated feeling came to a horrifying painful feeling, especially from his wife, who yelled out with fright at his condition. 

“ _NO!_ HONEY!” 

* * *

“I bring you all here today to address something quite terrible that has passed into the hearing of those of us here at the Castle. Toadbert?” 

An electric blue Toad stood up and began changing the slides of the presentation, speaking urgently and pointing at the images, the beginning image being of Virid T. leaning against his kitchen wall, looking all like a bloated circus ball. “We’re here to talk about… _The Blorbs_!” 

The other Toads quivered in fear, and one of them continued the presentation after Toadbert, although the scholar didn’t seem to appreciate being interrupted. “It comes without warning! It s-starts with the blowing up like a balloon.. Then the rolling! Oh, the _horror_ of the Blorbs!” This Toad broke out in tears, and a fellow Toad to his left patted his back while Toadbert continued again, sighing worriedly as an image of Toads in the medical clinic of Toad Town appeared on the projector screen. 

“As of press time, it is not fully known how many are affected, although we know at least 12 towns or villages have been affected. We have called this convention because we need to address the possible cause and a possible way to at least halt the pandemic. There is currently no known cure.” Toadbert stopped speaking, and stepped away from the podium to allow Peach to stand there once more, all while the other Toads chattered nervously in their seats. 

“O-oh… Soon the Blorbs will get through the entire Mushroom Kingdom.. A-and then who knows where it’ll g-go? We’ve g-got to find the cause and get t-things back to normal!” one of the mayors said, waving his arms frantically. 

“Yeah, obviously, but we’ve never dealt with something like this! I have no idea what we’re s-supposed to do. _I suggest we panic!_ ” another one said, his voice sharply rising within his panicked manner. 

“Pull yourself t-together, man! We have to do SOMETHING! My s-son.. he’s also got the B-blorbs! W-wahhh..” yet another said, starting to bawl while shaking, burying his face in his bare hands and letting out his fears with his tears. 

Toadsworth gripped his walking cane tightly, his face ashen due to the news and the panic of his fellow Toads in the room. He spoke urgently, almost in a hushed voice, and gently bobbed while doing so. “Princess. We still await..” he said, and Peach slightly turned towards him, nodding her crown-decorated head in understanding so he didn’t have to finish his sentence. 

“Yes. We’ve sent our message to the Star Sprites for help, but.. We’ve yet to get a response.” Peach sighed and turned her attention back to the rest of the meeting, gently tapping her podium to try and get the others to pay attention to her. “Now, everyone, _please_ try to calm down– we _will_ find a solution to this-” 

She began loud enough to hopefully get the Toads calm again, but a loud yell soon cut through her calm voice. _“PARDON ME!”_ the voice said, silencing the poor Toads at the huge tables almost immediately. 

Toadsworth seemed to cheer up, but only slightly, at the arrival. “Ah, glorious! I daresay our Star Sprite has arrived, Your Highness!” The Star Sprite in question floated into the meeting room bearing nothing but a star above her head and a pair of what looked to be brown dress shoes. She blinked and floated to the middle of the area, bowing slightly to Peach before speaking. 

“Sorry I’m late. This castle is _huge!_ ” the Star Sprite began, having to take a deep breath as if she’d run a marathon, with Toadsworth shooting a questioning glance towards Toadbert, who just gave a quiet shrug, and then to Princess Peach, before he also spoke. “Princess.. Er, that thing is… what…?” 

“Nice to meet you! I’m Starlow, representing the Star Sprites and their council! Peach sent word of trouble in the Mushroom Kingdom.. So, as a representative of the Star Sprites, here I am!” After sounding surprisingly formal for her entrance, she simply turned to everyone and grinned warmly, speaking again with a chipper voice. _“HELLO YELLO!”_

“Mercy! Such _pep_ , such _verve_ , such _unswerving confidence_!” Toadsworth commended, feeling a burst of hope suddenly warm his heart. Briefly, the old butler felt his lips under the grey mustache twitch into a warm smile. “So, you’ll be able to simply cure the Blorbs. Correct?” Starlow’s expression faltered almost immediately, and at that moment, all the Toads in the room faltered in their temporary hope, waiting for her to answer somehow. 

“Oh. Uh.. Well… Hmm, how do I explain…?” The golden-yellow Star Sprite’s feet twitched nervously as she kept hovering in the middle of the tables, before she floated to an empty seat and stayed there, explaining quickly to Toadsworth what she knew. 

* * *

A few minutes later, Toadsworth sighed, scratching his head with a deep frown, and even Peach looked discouraged now, her eyes filled with a deep worry for the situation. “..If this is beyond even the power of a Star Sprite..” 

Starlow gave a slight sigh, turning to Toadbert across from her to explain. Her eyes were dead serious now, so serious she would probably stare someone into stone if that were her power and not what she currently had. “Well, I did some research on similar afflictions, but.. The Blorbs seem to be in a class of its own. It, for the moment, seems to be incurable..” the Star Sprite deduced, shaking her head despondently in slight sorrow. “If we could just find _some_ sort of cause, we may finally have a place to start..” 

Toadbert thought back immediately to the information Peach had helped him gather when the news had first broken out. Quickly, the blue, glasses-clad Toad pulled out some white device not too dissimilar from a twin-screen item, looking up the notes he’d taken to go out and confirm some of Peach’s own information. Meanwhile, a Toad directly to his left spoke up, managing a calm enough tone. 

“The medical staff have done our best to relieve the swelling, but as far as well can currently tell, we can’t reverse the effects,” she explained, this one being marked with a white doctor’s jacket and a stethoscope, and her voice was also quite serious and surprisingly not panicky. This Toad had light pink spots and magenta eyes that currently were sharpened in seriousness. 

One of the Toads down the line indignantly yelled, “You _HAVE_ to do something! It’s a _national emergency_ , Doctor!” 

“Thanks for the news flash! _Obviously_ we want to _help!_ ” the Toad doctor snapped back, clear sarcasm dripping in her high-pitched voice like acid, while her magenta eyes glared daggers at the naysayer. 

Peach semi-awkwardly looked in that direction, feeling scared the Toads may begin to argue at any moment. 

Starlow raised an eyebrow, scooting over to the Toad beside her right with curiosity in her voice. “Psst. Who is that over there?” she asked, glancing at the Toad doctor to indicate who she spoke about. The Toad mayor, a little startled but ready to speak, nodded in the Toad doctor’s general direction. “That’s Dr. Toadley’s intern.” 

Confusion glittered in Starlow’s soft brown eyes, and she gave a head tilt, although it was more of a body tilt considering she was almost all head save for her shoe-covered feet. “Dr. Toadley? Who’s that guy?” 

“He’s a really famous doctor. He knows _EVERYTHING_ ,” the mayor replied, grinning at Starlow and jumping up slightly in excitement while he spoke. “Uh, he couldn’t make it to the meeting today, though, so his intern is here.” 

“Hmm..” Starlow muttered to herself, turning back towards Princess Peach, who had remained quiet the entire time, quietly observing the meeting with concern shown within her face. The female Toad doctor carefully readjusted her jacket and prepared to leave. “I have many patients, so you’ll have to excuse me, Your Highness.” 

With that, she withdrew from the table after bowing her head to the human monarch in pink, and walked swiftly away to go treat the poor, Blorb-infected inhabitants of Toad Town. 

Toadsworth gave a weakened groan, readjusting his glasses and then going back to gripping his walking cane within nervousness. “Blast.. The doctors are stunned, and the Star Sprite is helpless.. To whom might we turn?” 

Starlow’s face twisted in semi-annoyed guilt, and she spoke again. trying hard not to let her annoyance shine through her voice. “Look, I’m really sorry, OK? There’s just some things even a Star Sprite can’t do! ..I guess we just g-give up, huh?” Starlow felt a lot guilty now- she hadn’t expected that the Toads and Peach were counting on her to magically cure the Blorbs herself, and now she was a little afraid she may be letting down the Council. _She didn’t want to let them down._

Peach and Toadsworth soon exchanged worried glances, at least until more words cut through their silence and the nervous chatter of the mushroom-headed visitors to the castle. 

Those words of course were from Toadsworth himself. “Well! How insolent, hmph!” he indignantly said, his unseen nostrils flaring. 

“ ** _Insolent?!_** Say _that_ in a mirror, _sir!_ **_YELLO GOOD-_** ” Starlow began, soon putting herself very close to Toadsworth’s mustache, prepared to fight him if needed. 

“Both of you.. _Calm down_ , Starlow, Toadsworth..” Peach spoke up, putting a hand upon her chest pendant in such a manner that Toadsworth’s anger died near instantly, as did the Star Sprite that was floating in his face, who withdrew to her seat obediently. Toadbert also spoke up, frowning and calling out while holding the device in his hands carefully. 

“ _Yeah_ , Toadsworth, what’s the matter with you! There IS someone we can count on, by boogity!” Toadsworth knew exactly whom Toadbert was referring to, and although Starlow looked initially confused with a raised eyebrow, she soon perked up in interest and curiosity when the old Toad spoke again. 

“Ah, quite right! Hope endures for us, for the superstars will prevail!” 

“So, uh…” Toadbert pointed out, closing his device and doing a full three-sixty before continuing. “What’s up, Toadsworth? They’re not here yet? The bros?” 

Starlow frowned, still wondering who the “bros” were. They were possibly the superstars mentioned, meaning they were heroes of the kingdom, always able to be depended on. Now she wondered if they were the ones that tried to help the previous leader of the Star Council before they.. _This was no time to be thinking about it._

Starlow sniffled a bit, and then sighed, not hearing the creaking _BANG_ of the castle’s main doors outside.


	3. The Superstars of the Mushroom Kingdom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { a hc note of mine: Mario in this fanfic will be using a mix of both sign language marked like 'this', and Italian, marked with "this". ..Hopefully that's alright. This is my first venture into major fanfic territory officially, so I may make a few mistakes here or there.. }

Mario and Luigi were running as fast as their legs could carry them to the castle, rushing through Toad Town at top speed. They were _very_ late for something at Peach’s castle.

The mail Parakoopa had ended up snapping both out of a nice sleep to announce that Peach had needed them, and of course, they were very late by that point, in part to Luigi falling asleep halfway through Mario’s hurried making of toast for them to eat. Luigi was more disheveled, mainly since he was the deeper sleeper of the household, so he was currently trying to get his overalls buttoned, all while Mario tried to help, already fully dressed and apparently less sleepy than his younger brother.

In his own gesturing, the elder plumber tried to stop Luigi to at least try to get his overalls buttoned by tugging on his green-colored sleeve every two minutes, but Luigi kept trying to walk and do that at the same time, continually brushing Mario off tiredly.

“For– Mario, let me walk! I have to-a get to the meeting too, you-a know!” the taller of the two complained, his eyes giving a tired glare at Mario. Luigi was admittedly a bit cranky since he rarely ever got up this early, and he usually slept longer anyway due to his anxiety keeping him up at night. Well, yesterday’s debacle was actually just him sending another letter to Peasley but he had finished it too late.

Mario groaned inwardly and signed ‘Luigi, will you please stop for a minute?!’, his hands flying in such a motion that only Luigi knew. Of course, he shook his head and almost came close to knocking his hat off his head, now switching to panic instead of irritation.

“Hey, it’s-a not my fault we weren’t told about-a this conference sooner! Now Peach is-a gonna be mad at us for being late!”

Mario frowned and continued what he was saying, once again through his gestures. _‘Luigi, I think the princess has more patience than she shows. Even in kart racing, fratello mio. Just stop so I can at least check that your overalls don’t fall off, okay?’_

“Mario, _please_ –!” Luigi half-protested, fearing he would trip and fall over his own two feet any minute.

Mario practically threw open the doors to Peach’s Castle and ran inside, with one of the door guards waving his arms at the two.

“Hey, Mario, Luigi! Hurry, hurry!” the Toad said, and as soon as he’d uttered that, Luigi unceremoniously tripped on one of his loosely-tied shoes, falling forwards onto his face with a groan while said shoe went flying past the Toad and Mario, who fell into an awkward silence.

_'Luigi, I told you..’_ Mario signaled, and then carefully helped his brother up, quickly buttoning the taller Italian’s overalls and making sure his shoe was tied. Luigi sighed in embarrassment and felt his ears go red, only standing when the shorter of the pair retrieved his shoe.

“You okay there, Luigi?” asked the guard, rubbing his red, polka-dotted head, and the embarrassed man in green gave a quick nod. “Okay, the conference room is up ahead, sirs. If you need anything, just ask!”

_'Thank you,’_ Mario said with a nod and a motion of his arm, soon walking quickly with Luigi behind him, whispering away now that the Toad was out of view.

“Hey, Big Bro? Do you think this is about those weird rumors that’s been spreading around? Peasley’s been writing about it lately..” Luigi muttered, his general demeanor shifting to a nervous one like usual. “I mean.. It’s been getting so bad Peasley’s worrying about it starting in the Beanbean Kingdom.”

Mario nodded in acknowledgement, sighing and turning around a bit to answer. _'I can understand why he’d be worried. He cares about his people at a near-equal level as he regards you.’_

“Yeah.. I hope he gets my letter,” Luigi agreed, before yawning, his mouth opening wide before shutting again. The sound of nervous chatter near a door they were heading to sounded like a lot of Toads and also the sound of a projector still running. Mario figured this had to be the right room, so he nodded to the door guards and opened the doors to the conference room, with all conversations falling silent.

The conference room itself had two statues of Princess Peach near the entrance, and the two brothers remained quiet for a moment, before all in the room made a surprised noise, even the Star Sprite.

“Ah! Master Mario and Master Luigi!” Toadsworth said with a pleased smile at their arrival, albeit a late one, and they were pointed to an empty seat near Starlow and the seat next to Toadbert the doctor had left empty. “We’ve awaited your arrival. Let us resume the meeting, yes?”

_'I apologize, Toadsworth, we got the announcement late,’_ Mario quickly apologized with a nervous rubbing of the back of his head along with a few extra gestures added in. Then, Mario and Luigi took the empty seats, and quickly Toadsworth filled them in on what they all knew the best they could, the stuff that Toadbert hadn’t yet said out loud, at least.

Luigi felt too exhausted to properly continue listening, so he put his head on the table and began to sleep, pulling his hat over his eyes to block out the light and the noise around him. He didn’t feel up to really talking about it, and he honestly just wanted sleep.

* * *

And so after a half hour of Toadbert recapping things for Mario, who wrote them down in a journal he kept for adventures, and after Toadsworth finally got Luigi a coffee to try and get him to stay awake enough to hear things, it was time for Toadbert to get to what he’d been wanting to say.

“…and that’s what happened during the part of the meeting you weren’t here, Mario. Is there anything else I need to go over?”

Mario shook his head no, putting down the open journal and pen to answer–said journal already had a page and a half of information, like a list of the Toad villages and towns affected, Peasley’s awareness of the situation, and also the symptoms of the Blorbs. _'No, I think I got everything, Toadbert,’_ he expressed, _'but perhaps you should tell the last of the clues you’ve found.’_

“Right,” Toadbert agreed, and Toadsworth gestured at the blue-and-white scholar to speak again.

So, the scholar quickly took out his device again and immediately pulled up his notes, pushing his glasses back onto his face, and he put the device on the table to be able to speak better. A new image appeared on the screen at a hand wave of Toadbert, and it somehow gave a chill down Mario’s back as he saw it from his side view.

It was the (in color, oddly) picture of a silver-cloaked person, who was walking while clutching something fire-red close to their chest and looking around as they walked through Toad Town to a corner of it well-known for weird things.. including the rumor of the Blorbs contaminating the spot. This was a picture someone at the Kingdom Courier had taken in curiosity on the day of one of the first cases in Toad Town, before Virid T.’s case.

But what chilled Mario most wasn’t the fire-red object or the cloak. No, it was the swirly glasses he saw under the hood, half-glinting in the sun, and the faintest hint of color in each lens. _Magenta and golden._ _'Oh dear Star Spirits..’_ he muttered in Italian, completely forgetting the translation in his flurry ti get everything down, his worry drowning most of everything out, except the information Toadbert said.

“Now then.. Going on the little information Peach and I have unearthed..” Toadbert said, gesturing to the image the projector produced, “the cause may be a mushroom sold by a local merchant, seen here in the picture we got from a photographer of the Kingdom Courier a week ago.”

Mario wrote this down, but had subconsciously written **“Is this Fawful…?”** in the note as he listened, also quickly sketching the same image into his notebook to color at a later time. Something about the merchant in the picture gave him a super strong sense of deja vu, and usually most of that stuff was Luigi’s department.. _It just didn’t feel right._

“O-oh dear..” Peach murmured– she hadn’t seen the mushroom until now. “A mushroom? That red and orange one there? You mean to tell me the cause of the Blorbs is a mushroom..?” Confusion was of course present in Peach’s eyes, since she hadn’t even considered that possibility when she’d heard the information herself prior to the meeting.

“Well, yes. I’ve interviewed all the Blorbed Toads I could with my own staff, including one called Virid T. The merchant is believed to go by the alias of _Gera_ among the victims of the Blorbs,” Toadbert said, glancing at his notes before turning his gaze back to the unsettling picture of “Gera” on the screen. “They all said they’d bought the Blorb Mushrooms.”

Even Luigi was unnerved now, and he took in the information with worry, watching his brother’s expression go from mildly concerned to a look that only told the taller plumber Mario was feeling like he’d seen and heard a similar situation before. Mario WAS also a doctor by trade, so he’d probably dealt with some kind of outbreak caused by an edible item. Then again, Toadbert had mentioned to Mario that nobody had ever seen such a thing happen before..

As for Toadsworth, he had sat and watched everything happen with a look of utter confusion and sickened fear at what he was hearing, and he gripped his cane shakily, his voice sounding almost uncertain.

“Blorb Mushrooms? Perplexing.. Not a local variety, of that I’m quite certain, Toadbert.. Pray tell, _what_ sort of _rapscallion_ would even sell such a thing?”

“Well, the witness that took the picture says “Gera” definitely had a cape or cloak of some kind with buttons on it. All signs point to the suspect not being from this kingdom,“ Toadbert explained, his eyes hardening with a serious glare.

Mario felt his heart stop, feeling horrified in many ways. The "Gera” person looked to be about the same height as the Toads or slightly taller, so he couldn’t reasonably be _Fawful_ , since he had presumably _died_. Well, he should have died after being in the sewers so _long,_ if the baby versions of himself were to be believed.. The toxins down there should have made the small Bean sick, since he wasn’t used to such an environment..

Or maybe _Fawful had survived_. Maybe–

“Mario,” one of the Toads near the Italian plumber whispered, “you’re shaking a bit.. Are you alright?”

_’…I’ll be okay,’_ Mario said, feeling his own hands shaking while he formed those words, like the Toad had said. Mario figured it was probably the past anxiety of the whole Cackletta debacle making him feel all high-strung about Luigi’s safety again. Well, and the fact that the Blorbs were spreading fast gave him horrible flashbacks to one of the Mushroom Fever outbreaks, and how he’d always feared Luigi would get it. It was a terrible reminder..

Mario snapped back to the present, just in time to hear Starlow speaking. The poor plumber felt a little embarrassed for not paying attention in his panic, but he pretended he had been paying attention the whole time and looked back to Starlow.

“Well, whoever he is, he’s our only lead. So, it’s decided! Let’s go find him!” the Star Sprite said, and Toadsworth once more spoke.

“Master Mario, Master Luigi! It is your time to shine! Go and trample the fellow as if he were Bowser!” the old Toad cried, lifting his cane up into the air…

##  _“GWAHAHAHA!!”_

…and freezing in place, his eyes shrinking the moment the deep, ever-present voice filled the air.


	4. All Hail the King and the Superstar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { relating to last chapter's notes: Bowser happens to understand Italian because he's been fighting Mario for decades, and yes that includes him having learnt possible cuss words. Not that there's t o o much cussing, aha. 
> 
> ...that's it for this chapter's notes, ahah. }

“Did someone just page the king of awesome?”

Those were the second words that filled the air, and Mario redirected his now determined azure gaze at the source. Only a few words came from his hands this time. _‘He’s here.’_

It went dead _silent_ , save for the soft snoring of Luigi and the whimpering of the Toads shaking in their seats, and for the speaker’s loud footsteps as he entered.The door guards lay unconscious on the ground, groaning due to having been hit by the speaker, who towered over near everybody in the room, and was grinning wide at Peach herself. Only Peach could see the pure _sarcasm_ in his eyes right now.

It was indeed Bowser, the “king of awesome”, whose amber eyes glittered with confidence as he strode into the room, and the Toads immediately booked it, including Toadbert himself, their scattered voices filling the room with their mood being so obvious and yet still surprising to Mario enough to make him yell out in a single, panicked yelping.

_“EMERGENCY!”_

_“EMERGENCY! THE KOOPA KING’S HERE!”_

_“Bowser’s here! BOOK IT!”_

Of course, Bowser only gave a hearty yet somehow bitter laugh to fill the room, his spiky tail swiping from side to side while his body shook powerfully to distribute the energy of his confidence into the rest of the room. The large, dragon-like Koopa gave a huge, toothy grin before yelling once more.

**“PEACH!”** the towering Bowser called cheerfully, but now Mario recognized the pure pain in Bowser’s eyes as harsh sarcasm and the obvious feeling of ‘Why do you not trust me?’, harsher than real anger, “so I’m an outcast, huh?! What’d I do to deserve **_this?!_** ”

Peach’s heart sank, and panic soon laced the middles of her blue eyes, so she backed up slightly, unable to keep her composure in the face of Bowser’s immense anger. The poor princess couldn’t say anything, only twitching away from the scary Koopa in her meeting room. _She could fight the Koopa herself, but she hadn’t expected a damn fight today, so she didn’t even have her parasol or magic properly prepared for the day! Oh, she should’ve listened to Merlon when he’d said today would get bad…_

It was a good thing she did back up, for Bowser soon punched the middle of the U-shaped table clean off its support, the large chunks of soft teal and dark chestnut flying in different directions. The hiding Toads all gave a squeak in fear, knowing that Bowser was definitely mad at the princess and likely was here to kidnap her in retaliation.

Peach wanted to ask why Bowser wasn’t invited, why that letter had said he was not to be trusted, but it was Toadsworth that spoke the question instead, standing protectively in front of the long-haired woman with anger burning in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?! We’re in an important meeting, because the kingdom is in terrible danger! Leave the Princess and the castle at once!”

Bowser scoffed at Toadsworth, his already thin slits of amber narrowing into a fiery color to match his inner fire. “Gee, **PARDON _ME!_** Guess what? I live here too, Your Royal Genius! I’ve got as much right to be in this meeting as much as anyone! Whatever’s happening could harm my dear kids! I’ve heard about enough to know _THAT!_ ” The Koopa angrily crossed his arms, feeling his flame pipe starting to heat up with angry flames ready to scorch his current opponent. Before he could say anything else, a yellow orb he didn’t recognize went in front of Peach and yelled at him.

“Don’t be ridiculous! You have no right to be here in the first place, so get out! _YELLO GOODBYE!_ ” Starlow yelled, her sharp-ish teeth soon flashing as she yelled with all her might. Which was a lot, for someone who was her size.

Bowser winced at the loud yelling, before he shot back at the Star Sprite while his fists shook. “Fine…”

Smoke began stirring like a fog past his nostrils, and he braced himself, leaning back and backing up slightly. Peach felt the ever-present fire magic starting to charge up and bubble like magma, and so she closed her eyes, until…

##  _**“…THEN FACE ME, YOUR HIGHNESS!”** _

Bowser let the fire out of him in one gigantic motion, but saw Mario snap into action, running up to Peach and carrying her out of the way of the danger faster than one could say “Bowser Koopa”. Bowser let out a barely audible 'Crud!’ before he stopped his stream of fury, finding a glaring Mario staring right at him just barely a second later. ~~_Damn, Mario was fast._~~

“MAAAAARIO!” Bowser growled, his amber eyes flashing with irritation, his fists shaking like mad along with his spiky tail, which was sticking straight up with its spikes sharp and stiff. “ _Smetti di interferire con me!_ Are you seriously trying to start with me again?! I hear about this big meeting, and I’m all ready to act nice..! But man, when I see your face, Mr. Nice Bowser is GONE! FORGET YOUR STUPID MEETING!

I’ll just pummel you and grab Peach! Maybe then she’ll TRUST me enough to tell me what the hell goes on around this stupid pair of kingdoms!”

Mario’s soft blue eyes hardened to a determined, stone-hard gaze, and he went into a battle stance, something he was plenty used to after so many battles. Since Bowser was one of the few people that got him to do something other than his signing, he boldly spoke in Italian, his heart starting to pound in his chest.

“ _Stai commettendo un errore, amico mio, ma hai forzato questo.. Che la nostra battaglia abbia inizio!_ ” Mario scowled, balling his fists and bouncing slightly in place. If he had learned anything from his time in his birthplace of Brooklyn, back in that alternate world, it was how to fight with a quick mind. Even if he wasn’t fighting a fellow Italian and was fighting a big Koopa like Bowser.

Bowser cracked his knuckles and went into his own battle stance, glaring at Mario for what he’d said. The burly turtle bit back a few cuss words and decided instead to try scorching Mario again, sending a big fireball the plumber’s way. As expected, Mario jumped clean out of the hot object’s way, landing on his feet nearly perfectly like a cat, and went right back to a battle stance not a moment later. Toadsworth was worried, but confident that Mario would succeed, so he stayed behind the table and watched.

Luigi was napping away on the other side of the table, apparently not hearing nor caring for the battle taking place near him, all while Peach and Starlow watched from those sidelines to Luigi’s side, huddling with the Toads.

Mario ran up to Bowser and jumped, aiming for Bowser’s head. PAT! PAT!

Mario’s boots hit Bowser’s great but scaly head, softly cushioning on the latter’s amber locks as he gave two growls for the two successful hits, a silly look of pain making Starlow and Toadbert snicker a little. Then, Mario scurried back to his side of the battlefield, and Bowser charged more fire, smoke coming from his nostrils as he spoke.

“You little…! I’m not letting you win this time! A-and we’re not friends!”

Mario rolled his eyes instead of giving a proper answer, knowing that Bowser had always let Luigi babysit the Koopalings when Bowser was away, other than today’s situation since he AND Luigi had to go to the meeting. This eyeroll made Bowser even angrier, so it was easy to lob the fury in the form of flames, with Mario yet again dodging gracefully.

“Ugh, you’re so persistent! Jeez, you could’ve at least asked Luigi to vouch for me!” Bowser added, which finally prompted Mario to verbally answer at last. Of course, he still ran up to Bowser to jump on his head like he was a walking mattress.

_“Fino ad ora non sapevamo nulla dell'incontro! Calmati, Bowser, preferirei non combattere adesso!“_ Mario responded, soon making contact with Bowser’s head before yet again scurrying back to safety. _“Chi ha detto che non eri il benvenuto, comunque? Non si fa un accordo con Peach un po 'indietro che si sarebbe almeno presenti per riunioni di emergenza?”_

“…” Bowser felt almost stunned but he nodded, unclenching his fists for a small moment.

Mario thought he’d maybe appealed to Bowser’s better nature, but soon another angry yell came from the Koopa, this time in Italian, like him.

_“La principessa non si fida di me, Mario! Dubito che sarà mai!”_

_“Mi dispiace..”_

Mario ran up to Bowser one last time while the Koopa was distracted, and hit the king in the chest, sending him flying onto his shell. Bowser spun around dizzily until he hit one of the Peach statues, then proceeded to spin back around to Mario. Mario once again jumped clean out of the shell’s path, and Bowser hit his head on the wall behind, the spinning finally coming to a stop.

Bowser managed to stand up, but only barely, and his world spun in front of his eyes. The Koopa tried to step forward, forcing his lunch to stay down where it belonged, and reached for a red-colored blob with a hint of dark blue, all while black spots appeared in his vision.

“M-mario.. you…. _ngh…_ ”

Bowser’s legs wobbled and gave in after he tripped on his tail, and onto his stomach he went. Then, quite quickly, his world began getting steadily darker, and he felt like the world was rising too sharply, as if he were floating. Out of the vision he had left, he noticed things went a weird shade of pink, and a lighter pink object was directly in front of him.

“That’s enough, Bowser,” he heard it say, and while he felt like he’d gone flying away, he passed out completely, groaning as everything finally… _went… dark…_


	5. An Illusion of Good Fortune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { quick warning for possible etemophobia here, so if you're about to read the chapter and are not comfortable, please be careful when reading! 
> 
> also rip bowser in advance }

Kamek had come out to the woods to find Bowser, after one of the few neutral Parakoopas ( _the mail one, specifically, or Kooper as he preferred_ ) had delivered some odd message. All it had read was that the Blorbs would find their way to Bowser if he had succeeded in capturing Peach, if the meeting was crashed in any way. Plus, the message was signed with the name of Gera and a tiny drawing of a bean, like the Chuckle Beans over in the Beanbean Kingdom.

It was odd and very suspicious to the old Magikoopa ( _he somehow recognized the handwriting from some kid Ludwig had once befriended? He didn’t know the name_ ), so he’d left the Elite Trio in charge to the Koopalings’ chagrin ( _especially Junior. He was just as whiny as Bowser had been as a child!_ ), and he was now in search of Bowser. _Maybe_ Bowser had actually gotten there peacefully as planned, so he wouldn’t need to worry over Bowser… _Maybe for once, Bowser didn’t try going after Mario._

Little did Kamek realize that something was following him, being very careful only to walk when he did, so he wouldn’t hear the extra footsteps. It was a big, pink burly something who stalked the blue-robed sorcerer, and a smaller being was upon their shoulder. 

Kamek did have the feeling someone might’ve been watching him, but he sighed and reassured himself that he was probably just being paranoid..

After five minutes, the small cloaked being tugged on the boar’s fluff, whispering so soft that Kamek didn’t notice as he called out for Bowser, even firing magical flares every once in a while.

“…Midbus. We are _not_ having luck with the following. Let us be going back to wait.” The cloaked being pointed back behind him, sounding worried.

The boar, Midbus, gave a small nod, They stopped and waited until Kamek fired another flare, then Midbus got down on all fours and skittered very fast in the other direction. His tail swished around as he almost galloped, with his small passenger hanging onto his shoulders and golden-yellow fluff as best as he could.

When they got to a clearing that was out of Kamek’s earshot, Midbus stopped and stood back up, letting the silver-cloaked boy slide down his spines and get back on the ground. The cloaked figure soon began walking with Midbus following, and the figure put his hands in the cloak’s pockets, almost casually.

“Lord Fawful. Shall we double-check our plan?” Midbus asked, walking along with much heavier footsteps, his feet squashing the soft grass and dirt underneath them. His tail swished around again against the tickly grass of the woods, although he was being careful not to let it smack the one he was responsible for keeping safe.

“Yessing, it is being an idea of good to recap. One must always be having the remembering of a scheme,” Fawful answered, looking up and smiling proudly at Midbus. “The Great Cackletta taught me that.”

“I suspect she did,” Midbus added, and so the two walked in a small, 5-second silence before Fawful piped up again, removing his hands from his pockets. His voice sounded filled with confidence while walking, now feeling safe and secure to scheme away with Midbus to hear.

“So, we are having at least this… The bread that is being the founding of our scheme is being the spreading of the Blorbs.”

“Done.”

“Then the meat is being the giving of fury to the king of Koopa.” Fawful grimaced at the thought of Bowser, remembering when he’d dropped Bowser when trying to kidnap him during the Beanstar plot. But then he also remembered Bowser was probably going to not remember that, so he was able to brush the bad thoughts away.

“I think it is done, Lord Fawful.”

“So all that is being left now is the cheese and mustard… The cheese is being the giving of the Mushroom of suction.. and then the mustard of the world’s doom will have being as the taking over of Bowser’s forces and the destruction of the fink-rats so we can be getting the Star of Darkness..”

Fawful idly counted on his fingers with each step, continuing his walk as they approached the other part of the long clearing. Midbus only watched the Bean as he spoke, getting lost in his thoughts of conquest and his own goals. The forest was very quiet, save for whatever meager birds and idle Goombas that weren’t employed in Bowser’s army were around. It was a sunny day out, with hardly any clouds to disrupt the warm beams from reaching the woods. Even the wind felt nice, as opposed to the almost summery heat Fawful had felt a few days earlier back in Toad Town.

_A great day for a scheme to work out_ , Fawful thought gleefully, and then he began faintly sensing a semi-unfamiliar magic filling his senses. The Beanish teenager soon held his right hand up, removing its glove to reveal his gauntlet, which had the blue topaz core of it glow with a soft pink color and also a hint of fiery amber-scarlet.

“I am having the sensing of Bowser. I have fury, Midbus! Go have the hiding while I have the preparing. Bowser is almost having arrival.”

Midbus gave an affirmative nod, and made his way behind a huge boulder that Fawful and Midbus had already gotten earlier in the day. Then, Fawful hopped behind the makeshift counter, readjusted his cloak’s hood to hide his hair and his glasses better, and he proceeded to sit and wait patiently with that trademark grin, creepy and evil as ever.

—

Kamek sighed as he walked back towards the Darklands border five minutes before, figuring Bowser was probably just plain busy. Although he did sense a very faint and unusual magical signature again, it really _was_ too faint to follow. He did, however, begin to hear the rushing of wind becoming ever closer..

The Magikoopa almost looked up too late at the source of the noise, soon backing up so fast he’d managed to trip over his own cloak in the process. The impact of Bowser’s body crashed into the trees around the area, knocking them clean off their roots and thoroughly scaring the hell out of Kamek when all the noise finally stopped. Scared birds fluttered out of the fallen trees, and Kamek slowly stood up, feeling both annoyed and relieved to see his king and technically-adopted-for-job-purposes son.

“Sire? Are you okay?” Kamek cautiously murmured, stepping closer to Bowser, who currently lay flat on his belly. Thankfully, the Koopa’s eyes blearily began to open, and he looked quite exhausted. Despite that exhausted look, a hint of anger still laced Bowser’s eyes.

For good measure, Kamek sent three healing spells with his staff to help Bowser along, and with each magical blast the Koopa king slowly felt more alert and healed. Kamek faintly sensed a magical block, something called as such among other Magikoopas as a way to weaken a Koopa’s natural power through white magic, like Peach’s magic, and the old sorcerer figured Mario must have ended up fighting Bowser anyway. _Curses, Bowser, you dumb-dumb.._

Bowser eventually sat up after a few more groans of pain, and he held hid hands to his aching skull, swallowing before he stood up, sighing deeply. For the time being, his anger had died down enough for him not to have so much fire wanting to burn things down..

Kamek, relieved, finally got up off the ground, holding his wand carefully in hand as Bowser shook his head like he was a dog that had gotten his hair wet. The Koopa king himself rubbed at his eyes and then spoke, sounding mildly annoyed at most, probably since he had gotten knocked unconscious.

“U-ugh.. That was bad..”

“That oughta fix you up, sire!” Kamek spoke up, sounding worried as usual, and he fixed his glasses, which were askew from his falling over. “I saw you falling from the sky.. I do hope you’re really okay, Bowser..”

Bowser made an annoyed noise, tightening his fists angrily, while his hairs, all of them, bristled like the fire they were colored after. Kamek braced himself for some sort of minor rant, sighing and rubbing the back of his head. “Mind I ask what happened, Your Majesty?”

“I’ll tell you what happened! That Star Spirits-damned Mario beat me _again!_ ” Bowser stomped his feet on the ground, once again startling the wildlife around the general area he’d landed in. “Those guys make me so _mad_ , Kamek! It does not end like this! I’m going back to her castle and kidnapping Peach for real! _I MEAN IT!_ ”

Kamek frowned, shifting his feet slightly and putting his free hand upon his head. Of _course_ he was going to go back there again so soon. They were _literally_ 10 minutes from Toad Town, thus 10 minutes close to the castle anyway. The Magikoopa let out a shuddering deep breath.

“ _Unless_ Mario is there still… which in that case, he’ll once again kick your-” Kamek started, but had to leap out of the way, watching in horror as the fallen trees from earlier got scorched by Bowser’s fire breath. A deep roar rang through the forest with the flames, and Bowser’s eyes had gone a stark blood red, deeper than rubies but certainly not less brilliant.

**_“DON’T SAY THAT NAME!”_** Bowser screeched, his voice cracking for one of the rare times in his life, and he quit burning stuff, while Kamek frantically cast water spells to quell the fire. It was successful, thankfully, although it did scare off some Goombas, causing them to scurry away back to Darklands territory or elsewhere in the forest. Good job, Bowser, you did great.

Bowser sharply inhaled and exhaled with shaking fists, turning back to the rest of the clearing, briefly seeing some weird shade of magenta behind a random boulder, but taking no mind to it. “Just _thinking_ about him… grr, it makes me so **_furious_** , y'know! Ugh!”

“W-whoa, King Bowser.. Chill out,” Kamek soothingly cooed, or tried to, as he hopped onto his magical broom after summoning it from his hammerspace. The blue-robed Magikoopa lifted off, then floated through the clearing, seemingly not noticing the bright, flashing Mushroom-shaped sign and the fake Mushrooms on a spinning conveyor belt on display.

As for Bowser, he simply stamped his scaly feet onto the ground again, still clenching his fists, and currently didn’t notice that his advisor and adoptive father was already heading home without him. “ _Fuck **off**_ , Kamek! I’ll chill _nothing_! I’m going back to Peach’s castle right now, and **_nobody’s gonna stop me!_** ”

Bowser opened his mouth again to continue ranting, but then noticed not only that Kamek was gone, but that he actually didn’t recognize this area a single bit. The trees weren’t familiar, nor was the creatures milling about or hiding from his large, scary but awesome self. After a few turns of his head to examine the place, Bowser sighed and scratched his head in confusion.

“..Wait, where am I, anyway?”

The Koopa, too baffled to question his location further, started off to go find Kamek instead of sitting around doing nothing, punching his way through a tree with ease. Internally he praised that Kamek had been able to restore his strength. Bless Kamek, he thought, I hope I can increase his pay when this is over.

Just then, he saw something small with a silver cloak scurrying away as fast as it could, away from the tree he’d just punched. Now with a piqued curiosity replacing his earlier fury towards the Mario Bros (or just Mario, as Luigi had been napping, so Bowser didn’t bother being mad at him), the dragon-like turtle soon stomped after the figure, which had ran towards two pipes in yet another clearing before disappearing.

“…Hello?” Bowser called out, walking into the new, bigger clearing in strides. Of course, he was a little nervous, though. What if that Gera dude was the figure…?

_“A WINNER IS YOU!”_ a voice cried out, cheery and happy. almost too much so.

The voice sounded… Familiar? Bowser couldn’t place it at the moment, but the voice sounded a lot like Lemmy, just weirder than Lemmy and more mad scientist like Lemmy’s younger twin brother Iggy. Bowser’s fire-red eyebrow raised and he walked on over to a small opening in the big valley wall.

“Win _what_ , exactly? What do you mean?” Bowser inquired, tilting his body a bit before righting his stance on the ground, looking akin to a lost puppy.

“You had the hitting of the jackpotting!” The cloaked figure from before was the source of the weird voice, and a smile was on his face. He leaned on a counter with his arms propping him up, and his glasses glinted in the sun as he leaned out so Bowser and himself could see each other better. All this did for Bowser was weird him out further, especially with the Mushroom sign with the lights and the revolving, probably fake or artificial Mushrooms on display for him to see.

“ _What?_ Huh? Repeat that?” Bowser’s face scrunched up in more confusion over this, and it was about then that Kamek had turned right around, landed, and ran to Bowser’s side, trying this time to not trip on his baby blue cloak like an idiot.

“Your Burliness, what’s going on here?!” Kamek began, but the apparent shopkeeper only shook his head and smiled some more, ignoring Kamek so nonchalantly that the Magikoopa shot him a quick glare.

Then, the swirly-glasses clad boy (Kamek guessed the person was at least a teenager or slightly younger) then stopped leaning on the counter, opting instead to offer what looked like a mustard yellow and violet Mushroom, with green as its face color, and closed eyes. “The customer has luck, yessing, much luckiness!”

Kamek’s face also scrunched up, and skeptically raised both eyebrows under his own glasses while Bowser stared at the odd Mushroom as the shopkeeper happily described just exactly what Bowser had supposedly won.

“What I have the saying is this.. The luckiness comes with a tasty Lucky Shroom! The best Mushroom of luck there is being!” The Mushroom is placed on the counter, and the shopkeeper once again leans on the counter casually, only further reminding Bowser and his hapless Magikoopa servant of Bowser’s youngest kids, those being Iggy, Morton, Larry and Junior. Mostly Larry, though..

“Lucky Shroom? Are you _kidding me?_ I didn’t even buy anything!” Bowser sounded beyond confused at this point, both eyebrows raised and amber irises soon turning to widened plates on his eyes. “What’s this about ‘jackpotting’, anyway? You trying to _swindle_ me?!”

The figure’s cheerful expression faltered, and Kamek felt suddenly very uncomfortable at the shopkeeper’s next words, swallowing nervously. All he could think of to say was a very quiet _“Oh dear..”_ as he watched the shopkeeper speak.

“Ah, no more worries for the detailings! No, do not have the worrying! Please be having the tastiness of the wonderful Lucky Shroom instead!” the merchant says, reassuring as best he can.

Bowser’s brows furrowed and he walked just a tad closer, smelling nothing bad about the “Lucky Shroom”. It kinda smelled like peppermint, actually..

Another thought came to the Koopa, though, and that was the feeling that he’d heard the shopkeeper’s speech pattern before, when that Beanish kid had tried to kidnap him that one time. _What was that kid’s name…?_ Bowser squinted at the Mushroom in thought, trying to remember better about that smart but mysterious child, who had resurfaced at that concert of Ludwig’s not too long ago. Yes, his children made friends with him since Junior’s seat at that concert got to that child by chance..

In his distraction, he snapped back to reality when the shopkeeper suddenly spoke again, apparently having noticed Bowser’s squinting.

“Scoff this down, and your luck will have the up-powering to super luck! It is having the greatness for an offer, yes?” The shopkeeper’s smile returns in full force, and he pats the Lucky Shroom next to him on the counter. “Luck enough to beat Mario, him _and_ his brother of silliness, Luigi!”

Bowser’s heart skips a beat (although he didn’t know why this shopkeeper knew of the Bros, but figured he’d at least spied on Toads for that information), and he soon felt a smile forming on his fanged teeth. “B-beat Mario? You’re serious, right?!”

The shopkeeper grinned wider and spoke once more. “I say to you, YES! With every attack, hits of luckiness will be showered from a happy waterfall! You will be having such _fury_! Your enemies of strongness will fold like napkins who have the crying!”

With each word, the boy seemed to be getting to a strong crescendo, making Kamek wince when the cloaked shopkeeper’s voice cracked a few times, and getting Bowser filled with excitement. Kamek felt so nervous, he pulled Bowser aside, near the boulder Bowser saw earlier, and almost swore he heard a shaky sigh behind it. Then, the Magikoopa whispered to Bowser, tugging on the Koopa’s horn to keep the space on his head where his hidden auditory ducts were.

“Your Majesty, I _really_ don’t think this is a good idea. This dude is very weird.. I don’t think you should eat that thing, seriously..”

“…But you heard him, Kamek, it may very well help me.. I’ve had zero luck for _YEARS_ beating Mario! It’ll help me beat Mario for sure!” Bowser rebutted in a hiss, sounding pretty desperate and legitimately curious and interested in the Lucky Shroom behind him.

“Is it being a deal?” the merchant asks, knocking on the counter to attract Bowser’s attention again, and he awaited Bowser’s answer to his offer with his smile.

“…Oh, _alright!_ Hand it over, kiddo,” Bowser said, and the merchant gives a funny ‘I’m not a kid’ look before complying with the request. The cloaked merchant hummed a song Bowser recognized as one of the pieces Ludwig had been recently practicing for his debut concert again just for kicks. It was odd that this random merchant knew that tune, but alright..

“Oh, yes, of course, Your Majesty,” the shopkeeper says with a polite smile while his glasses glinted in the sunlight again, “enjoy the eating!”

Bowser finally picked up the odd-colored Mushroom in his fingertips, and he felt a lot better, a lot more _confident_. So he walked off a bit, and then promptly tossed the Mushroom into his mouth. Kamek looked on worriedly, hoping that maybe he had merely been overreacting and that perhaps the Mushroom was harmless.

Bowser quietly noted the Mushroom tasted like mint still, and it wasn’t too bad of a taste, it just took longer to chew. The Koopa finished up the edible, and no more than five seconds passed before his throat felt like it was opening up and being torn open so fast it felt hot. Bowser put his hands to his mouth, feeling like he wanted to throw up.

“Hgf…! B-burf! K-kamek, I d-don’t…!” Bowser tried to say, tears pricking at the edges of his eyes as panic flashed through those amber hues. The Koopa stumbled, definitely thinking he’d soon throw up all over the place, and he began shaking uncontrollably where he stood.

“Bowser, what’s wrong?! I told you not to eat it..!” Kamek responded, stepping cautiously near the poor king just in case he were to lose his lunch. Then, he turned to the shopkeeper, whose grin had grown so wide it felt more like a horror movie.

“Hey! You creepy little _weasel!_ What in the Star Spirits’ name did you feed Bowser?!” Kamek growled, his staff already being pulled out to strike the child down from the air.

The counter turned out to be some kind of platform that floated using three jets, and the merchant gave a high-pitched laugh of sick glee before jumping onto it. After this, he dramatically removed his hood and undid the buttons, flipping the cloak to a red one instead of a grey one. Kamek felt his heart stop, cursing himself for not recognizing the red cloak and glasses sooner.

“ _Ahahahaha!_ Such easiness, so easy it is giving me the gleeful chortles! I have such strategy I even had the tricking of the Great Kamek..” the Beanish inventor said, bowing to Kamek and the presumably queasy Bowser. “And now for the leaving. After all..”

Fawful raises his magical gauntlet to Kamek, and readies it for a spell incase Kamek tried to do anything to stop him or Bowser, before grinning at the Magikoopa with fury not even Bowser could replicate. Fury and sickened amusement filled his expression, emanating from his eyes from beyond his glasses. More words, now louder than before, soon boom through the clearing, only making Bowser want to throw up more.

_“You are having a date with the Castle of Princess Peach Toadstool!”_

Then, finally, Fawful was gone, and Kamek blasted a magic sphere straight up at the 15-year-old Bean, but without success, before seeing a flash of hot pink also leave the area.

That was when Bowser’s jaw forced itself open, and he began sucking in everything around him like a vacuum, or as if Kirby had suddenly showed up right out of the Smash Tournament. Kamek fled as fast as possible right when it began with a startled yelp, and Bowser uncontrollably continued to suck in everything in sight, from the Warp Pipes he was near to trees and bushes near him. Tears still pricked at his eyes, and Bowser now realized why Kamek had been so cautious, regretting not listening at all.

With nothing else to do, and the sudden realization maybe only Mario could help stop this, the Koopa turned himself around and began stomping back the way he’d been flung..


	6. The Tables Have Turned In Kind

Back at Peach’s castle, things were still fairly quiet, being that the Toads had finally calmed down enough that currently, some of the Toad guards were handing out iced sweet tea and cookies to the mayors so they felt better. With all of them occupied with that, the main players of what had just went down were standing in the middle of the former U-shaped table, discussing the incident. 

Peach herself held some tea in her hands and sat on the table, to Toadsworth’s chagrin, and sipped at her tea with worry still on her face. Starlow had decided to seat herself next to Peach with a cup of tea levitating near her, with her star above her head glowing a soft red-orange color with a sparkly gold aura added to that and the cup of tea in question. Mario, Toadsworth and Toadbert opted to stand in the middle instead (although Mario leaned against the left table), and Luigi still slept on near his brother, with his coffee only half-drank near his sleeping self as if nothing happened.

“Well, that is certainly one way to break up a meeting..” Peach sighed, looking over to the Toads over in the other side of the room while holding her tea near her lap. “I can’t believe Bowser had done that.. Ooh, Toadsworth, I _told_ you we should’ve just invited him anyway…”

“Your Highness, you and I both know a fight with Mario was inevitable, Peach,” Toadsworth tried arguing, and Peach gave one of her rare, cold-hard glares at the old Toad, which prompted him to shut up.

“He could handle himself well enough, considering this _CAN_ become a threat to all his subjects and his children, too.. I’d rather be safe than sorry if we have any chance of getting along and solving this.” Peach huffed slightly, and Starlow gave a nod in agreement, sipping at her own tea before giving her own two-sense.

“Yeah, maybe that could’ve been handled better, both on our part and his. It’s a jerk move for him to have come here, barging in, but it’s also a jerk move on your part, Toadsworth, for not at least trying to consider him..”

“Yeah,” Toadbert agreed with some cookie in his mouth still, “and the meeting seems like it’s pretty much adjourned, by boogity.. Should we cancel it?”

“Hrm..” Toadsworth rebutted quietly, stamping his cane on the ground with a stark frown. “Young man, may I remind you that we’re facing a _national emergency?_ If we cancel the meeting entirely, nothing will get solved.”

_‘Plus, we have to consider that we may have more clues now due to Bowser’s visit. Perhaps we can build on that,’_ Mario signaled, chewing on a snack he’d brought at an earlier time for the meeting while he expressed his thoughts. _‘If it’s really getting bad enough that it may spread to the Koopa Kingdom, we could get a lead.’_

Peach nodded in agreement and got off the table in a graceful manner, taking another long dreg of her tea. “Absolutely. The blorbs are more pressing than Bowser right now.” Peach gained a determined look before speaking once again, her eyes hardening in a similar way to how Mario’s eyes would when facing any problem.

“The meeting must go on!” she finished, and Starlow nodded again, approving of this.

“Yeah, we can’t let Bowser worry us right now, guys!” Starlow chipped in, kicking one of her feet as a sort of determined gesture of her own before quieting down, going back to drinking her tea with her usual mood.

“Mercy, Peach, you ARE the princess! Take heed, my friends, for _that’s_ how one does things!” Toadsworth cheered, supporting the Princess’s words wholeheartedly with a happy smile. My, was he proud of the princess today, she was doing a lot of great things right! Well, then one look around the room did make Toadsworth sober up a little and realize the true state of the meeting room, and he gave an awkward sigh before talking.

“But surely we can’t use this ravaged room anymore.. Shall we continue in a place that’s not so… Demolished?”

The group gave a nod to everyone, and Peach called out to the rest of the Toads, tapping on the table to get the group’s attention.

“Everyone! Please follow us to the garden so we may continue our meeting, and remain calm!”

Before the group of Mario, Starlow, Peach and Toadsworth could leave, however, Toadsworth felt something tear him off the ground, and heard a faint growl of pain from Bowser before things went dark for him.

The rest of the group, and the rest of the Toads for that matter, all became startled when Bowser’s howling reached the doorway, with the king of the Darklands himself waddling in and uncontrollably inhaling things at astronomical rates, shaking a lot from all of it. Whether that was from fear, exhaustion, nausea, or a mix of all three really wasn’t known. All that was known to the remainder of the group as the other Toads fled again, was darkness.

Once the Princess and Mario got sucked up, Bowser turned around and tried to sit down and maybe actually throw up to get rid of the sick feeling and the burning of his throat, but he instead tried inhaling way too much stuff again, failing on this attempt.

The poor Koopa king then stomped to the middle of the half-shattered table again, and turned towards Luigi to try and ask if Luigi could help him. But nope, all he really did was start inhaling yet again, this time to the point that not only did Bowser begin to cry, but he’d woken Luigi, who was trying to escape the pull of the inhale move.

Bowser was shaking a lot more after that, but he gave a laugh. Yeah, that weird Lucky Mushroom turned out to be some weird dud that turned him into a more intimidating Kirby figure, but at least it lived up to the hype!

##  _“GWAHAHA!”_

Then exhaustion and dizziness swam over Bowser’s senses, and the shaking only got so bad he was about to fall over.

_“Gwa haha… ha ha.. h… ha…”_ Bowser’s sight swam in front of him, and as things began to go black for him once again, he heard heavy footsteps approaching the conference room. The burly Koopa turned as best he could, his tail now dragging across the floor as he saw the same shade of hot pink he’d seen in the forest earlier. Combined with the red and gold and green blur, he figured it was that child..

No, it was….

“F-Fa… faw.. Fawful…”

Bowser couldn’t remain standing anymore, and he fell flat onto his belly, completely drained from the events.The poor thing had finally passed out.

* * *

Fawful and Midbus showed up right when Bowser had collapsed from exhaustion, and Fawful hopped right off of the boar’s shoulder, checking the Koopa’s pulse through Bowser’s neck with two fingers. Thank goodness Iggy had told him that tidbit on how to check a dragon Koopa’s pulse.

The Bean felt relief at feeling a strong, albeit currently slow, heartbeat, then leaving Bowser and high-fiving Midbus despite himself. Fawful was grinning widely and jumping up and down, his tuft of inky black, curled hair moving with the rest of him as his excitement reached a fervent fever pitch.

“ _YESSING! I HAVE VICTORY!_ It is being easy as bread sandwiches that are being made of the bread that is being the defeat of the fink-rats!” Fawful cheered, which Midbus watching quietly as the young Bean celebrated. It was admittedly a bit weird considering how mature Fawful would usually try to be in front of an enemy, but then again, Fawful did need his childish moments. He was still only 15, after all.

“Okaying, Midbus, now we will have the proceeding with the plan we have planned!”

“Of course, Lord Fawful.. Is Bowser still alive?”

Midbus moved over to the unconscious Koopa, and carefully cradled the exhausted Bowser onto his back. Fawful gave a nod and summoned his flying platform again, watching as Midbus started off towards their chosen dump site for Bowser until he eventually woke up.

“Yessing, Midbus. His heart still has the beating, like a loud war drum slowed down with mud.. He should have okayness, with some of the hiccuping, ahah!” Fawful grinned again and sat on his platform, floating along with Midbus as the two of them walked right out of the castle. Thanks to Bowser’s little “hiccup”, as Fawful had called it, the place was mostly quiet, save for some Toads that had hidden during the unintended attack, as well as all those in the clinic and whatnot.

It was a cave that he and Midbus had found while exploring the Mushroom Kingdom’s border area that clashed with the Darklands territory which was chosen. It was a place Fawful had once considered for the new Bean n’ Badge location during the formulation of the plan while he was looking up information on the Blorb Mushrooms and how to artificially make them so he didn’t need to travel _all the way_ to the _Sammer Kingdom_ for them.

The Vacuum Mushroom, thankfully, grew in Sarasaland naturally, so that was way easier to obtain than making the damn Blorbs.

The cave was far-off though, so Fawful dug into his pockets for the snacks he’d bought with leftover funds with the purchases of the Blorb Mushrooms, and he promptly began snacking on homemade chocolate-covered coffee beans he’d bought from the sister town to Little Fungitown while there. The crunching of it between his teeth helped to keep him and his active mind busy while traveling away to Cavi Cape to drop Bowser off.

* * *

Mario found he was falling down, falling fast as everything shook around him, all while he gave a loud yelp. The Italian plumber saw blue, glowing walls of some kind that transitioned to a pink-red, and then he felt something squishy under him when he landed. Everything still trembled a bit, but eventually stopped, signaling to Mario that it was okay to stand up and move around.

Mario looked around a bit, and then upwards, sighing softly to fill the silence that surrounded him. Luigi, Starlow and even the Princess were not around to accompany him. He was all alone here, at least until he managed to find the others.

Mario felt an awful lot like a character called Sarah from one of [Luigi’s favorite movies](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fit%27s%2520Labyrinth%2C%2520the%2520one%2520where%2520David%2520Bowie%2520was%2520in%2520it&t=ZGE1MTIyODlmMzBjZDViZjBmYmVmZjc2NDZjNDAyZDE5Y2NmNmE2MyxSRVc4M2w1SA%3D%3D&b=t%3Ao_nXzrHOi3uEJM5UUNQkJQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fmemeshxdow.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F169051373081%2Fof-beans-and-dark-stars-chapter-6&m=0) as a child, one where Sarah had to travel through a labyrinth and a goblin king’s magic. Whoever was responsible for what happened to Bowser, and thus whom Mario figured was Gera, the suspect of causing the Blorbs, was the goblin king.. and he was Sarah, trying to get his friends and little bro back. This was just another roadblock to keeping his friends safe, or perhaps it was the key.

_Looks like I can only move forward from here,_ Mario thought, and readjusted his hat before beginning to walk forward from where he’d landed.

Only a short distance away, and Mario soon heard Starlow’s cries, ones that indicated she was trapped somehow. It didn’t take long for the plumber to see Starlow stuck in some weird pink transparent bubble thing, yelling and squirming all the Star Sprite could to get out of her predicament. 

_**“HEY, YOU STUPID BLOB THING! LEMME GO!”**_ Starlow yelled, her furious tone of voice slightly muffled by the unidentifiable captor on what Mario was calling the ceiling. “Now! Release me at _ONCE!_ That’s… _not_ how you treat a Star Sprite..!”

Mario was filled with a mix of horror and worry as he watched and looked around the area, noticing immediately the boxes on the ceiling with exclamation points. Oh, if only he could get up there somehow to hit the boxes.. Then perhaps he could get Starlow free of that freaky thing! Or perhaps he could also try throwing something.. But there was nothing to throw around the area, so getting up there himself had to be the only option..

_“Dorastella, quaggiù! Cercherò di trovare un modo per aiutarti!”_ he called out, waving at her direction and jumping as high as he could to get his new friend’s attention.

If the Star Sprite even heard him at all, she was apparently unable to give a proper answer due to the unidentifiable blob monster tickling her. “YAH! _QUIT THAT!_ It t-tickles!”

Starlow felt more tickling and a bit of a burning sensation, so she kicked and yelled some more. “Quit it! Now!” she hissed at the blob, kicking again with her feet, but to no avail, gritting her teeth with fear and anger. Oh for the love of the Star Sprites, she thought, I never thought my game would end like this!

Mario soon jumped into the pit, finding nothing that could propel him up to the blocks initially, and he glanced up at Starlow in worry again. Then Mario turned and saw the pipe sticking out under one of the blocks, figuring it might end up like some kind of built-in cannon. _Perfect!_ he thought, _this will definitely make things easier for me and Starlow!_

Mario rolled up his red sleeves and ran for the pipe, jumping right into it with enthusiasm and swiftness. Up he went to the block, easily hitting it with a fist, and with that, it turned grey, with a second pipe growing under the other block. Mario repeated the process and ran to the other pipe, with the same results soon allowing a third pipe to open underneath Starlow and the blob that held her captive.

Mario shot up from the third pipe into the blob that Starlow was in, hitting it with such force that it broke apart and let Starlow out. Starlow landed softly in Mario’s arms when he got onto the platform, and although she looked annoyed, she was okay, from what Mario could tell. After a second, the Star Sprite floated out of Mario’s arms, gaining a more cheery look now that she was okay.

“Ah..! Mario, you saved me!” Starlow remarked in cheerfulness, almost giving a grin she’d given back at the meeting before the blob dropped onto the platform. “!! _Watch out, Mario!_ ”

_'Stay back! I’ll be okay,’_ Mario signed, and he went into a battle position protectively in front of his friend, glaring in determination at the creature.

It only took five minutes for the blob to be disposed of, leaving Mario and Starlow once again alone. More platforms appeared on the sides of the surrounding pit, now allowing the pair to leave and hopefully find the others. With safety being around again, Starlow smiled at Mario and spoke again, gratitude clearly showing in her voice and her soft, brown eyes.

“Thank you so much, Mario, for saving me,” she said, dipping her head. Mario understood, and gave a nod and a smile to her to respond. Then he looked around again and tried to think. The place was very unfamiliar to Mario, unfortunately, and it still reminded him of that movie..

_'Hey, Starlow?’_ Mario’s hands softly gestured these words, and he frowned worriedly while turning to the floating Star Sprite again. _'Where do you suppose we’ve ended up?’_

“Hm..”

Starlow gave a good look-around herself, turning a full three-sixty before answering. “I can give a pretty solid guess that we’re inside Bowser’s body, Mario. After Bowser inhaled us, I woke up and wandered around for a while..”

Starloe then tilts a bit and points with her foot at where the blob used to be as she continues recounting her experience, with Mario intently listening as usual.

“..and then that amoeba thing grabbed me out of the blue,” she finished, and it clicked for Mario, now giving the plumber a better sense of what must have happened. _So the blob was really just a silly amoeba, wasn’t it?_ The amoeba must have thought Starlow was something to snack on, so that was probably why she had gotten stuck.

Bowser’s body didn’t really make _sense_ to Mario, though, since he and the others should have landed in at least a pool of boiling amino acids and not wherever he and Starlow were. Then again, Bowser wasn’t human and he had magic, so that was probably a much more noticeable difference than what he’s worked with. Nothing unusual, considering where he lived nowadays.

Now with that in mind, worry filled Mario again, and he felt his heartbeat sharply rise within panic at his realization. The others must’ve gotten horribly lost _someplace_ in Bowser’s body, and now he was a little scared the Koopa king’s body might have harmed the others now..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { an fyi, sorry if any of my normal battle descriptions are boring and all, but I'm only going to write out the boss battles (Wiggler, Durmite, etc) in full, not all the battles, since that would make things... also a bit boring. Hope that's alright with you guys! }


	7. Disbelief in an Uncertain Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { this is the last of the cross-posts from Tumblr! From here on in past this chapter, I will be posting the chapters around the same day as the update on Tumblr! So... I may not have something immediately after this. Enjoy the fanfic, ya'll! }

An awkward silence filled the air between the red-capped hero and Star Sprite for a few moments, as Mario’s expression headed more towards anxiety while more worried thoughts filled his head. Mario’s imagination started going almost as much as _Luigi’s_ would in this condition, and it somehow tugged at Starlow the wrong way, in a sort of guilt-wrenching way, inside her stomach as it twisted like a Freudian knot.

A tiny bit of a blue aura surrounded Starlow and she frowned slightly, watching as Mario’s mustache began twitching and somehow, tears slid out of his eyes, even starting to tremble again like at the meeting. The more anxious and absolutely terrified Mario began to look, the more it bit at Starlow’s conscience as she began to frown within concern for her new friend. Finally, Starlow simply floated over and did her best impression of a hug- a nuzzle of his cheek, to snap him out of it enough so that they could get out, or at least, find the others..

“Mario… Hey, I need you to listen, okay? I.. I’m a bit scared, too… We need to move on soon, or else whoever made Bowser do this is gonna end up doing something worse..” Starlow tried to say in a comforting way, nuzzling Mario until his hands went from his face so he could talk. “Are you okay, Mario?”

_‘Starlow, it feels so… so wrong! I’ve had a horrible feeling ever since we saw that Gera person at the meeting!’_ Mario signed, too upset to speak verbally at all, and the shock within his eyes didn’t seem to lessen any at all while he continued with a trembling frame. _‘I feel like he’s really just someone I thought I’d never see again in this life.. That maybe he’s behind.. everything. That… that he wants to harm me and my brother and everyone in the kingdom- no, the world!’_

Starlow frowned deeper, floating away from Mario to try and think about it. She’d heard something very faintly when she’d been wandering around earlier, now that she thought about it..

**_“…F-.. Fawful_ ** **_…”_ **

_“….It is being easy as bread sandwiches that are being made of the bread that is being the defeat of the fink-rats!…”_

Starlow wondered if the second voice had been that of Gera, or rather…

The Star Sprite looked carefully at Mario, frowning hard like Peach would, in a seriousness that would probably rival a stone statue. “Mario? Would that person who you think is really behind this named.. Fawful?”

Mario gave a firm nod almost immediately before the name left Starlow’s toothy mouth, and the scared look on the poor plumber’s face seemed to deepen even more as he explained.

_'Yes, that’s his name.. Fawful Gerakobittsu, if I remember correctly. I met him six, seven years ago,’_ Mario gestured, _'and he was quite the strange child. He and his adoptive mother, Cackletta, were aiming to steal something called the Beanstar, the treasure of the Beanbean Kingdom that can grant any wish in the world. But they also needed Peach’s voice for it..’_

“Why her _voice?_ ” Starlow questioned, growing confused while floating in midair, kicking slightly as she spoke with her eyebrows raising in small disbelief. “Why not kidnap the rest of her?”

_'Just stealing the voice was their initial plan.. But the Beanbean Kingdom’s prince, and one of Peach’s good friends, Peasley, tricked them into stealing Birdetta’s voice instead. That really made the Beanstar mad, and not only that but…’_

Mario looked at his hands, a deep frown in his lips as he next signaled his thoughts. Mario couldn’t help but cry still, as he remembered worrying many times for Luigi’s safety during their journey, but he also did feel some grief and guilt concerning the next part of this story, something he and Luigi both had nightmares about for weeks following its ending.

_’…we ended Cackletta’s game. Fawful was then able to put her soul into Bowser’s body, creating a being called Bowletta. She got very close to succeeding in her plans, but Luigi, Peasley and I were able to stop her plans, from Luigi disguising as Peach to getting the Beanstar back, to defeating Bowletta even when we were just about to die ourselves.. We did it. And yet…’_

Mario lets out an audible, worried sigh as he wipes his tears away, managing to stop them at last, even if he couldn’t stop shaking yet, either, and even if he stayed on the brink of tears. _'I’m scared Fawful truly has returned to finish what he and Cackletta started years ago, and that it’s begun with the Blorbs and… and this! I still feel horrible about this to this day, Starlow.. I really do…’_

“That’s _quite_ concerning…” Starlow grimaced, her soft brown hues hardening with worry inside them. “If he really _is_ behind this stuff, we gotta help Bowser stop that kid! At least… I _think_ he’s a kid.. No matter, we have bigger things to worry about.. Like getting out of Bowser.”

Mario gave a nod, feeling sufficiently calmed down for the time being, and once again looked around, even jumping so he could look ahead. But, alas, it was just him and Starlow for the time being. So the red plumber turned right around and shrugged with a smaller frown, his deep blue eyes reflecting only confusion now.

_'Where **are** the others, then?’_ Mario signed, albeit still a bit shakily so, then he crossed his arms to try and think of where he and Starlow were in Bowser’s body, leaving his Star Sprite friend to try and answer this herself. With a serious look, Starlow indeed answered, sighing inwardly.

“The others? …er..” Starlow shook her head sadly, the aura near her star going back to yellow before she talked again. “…I don’t know. To be honest, I didn’t exactly grasp that we’d gotten inhaled until I realized we might now be inside Bowser..”

Mario just looked at her, trying internally to get his anxiety to shut up for long enough that he could try to find his brother and their friends back. He only nodded to her in acknowledgement and uncrossed his arms, straightening his cap while faintly sniffling from his earlier outburst.

“I can bet everyone else is in here somewhere, but.. Right now, I just don’t know where anyone is but us.” Starlow floated below the middle platform suddenly, and she looked around, especially at the pink-red, squishy, fleshy and somehow moist material around the area. “…Yeah, definitely inside Bowser, that’s for sure.”

Starlow floated back up to Mario, now at his opposite, and she continued speculating on the situation, her brown eyes now thoughtful and concentrating instead of worried and disturbed as she spoke towards Mario, although it was just her speaking aloud her thinking.

“Who knows really how in the world THAT happened, but what I can say for sure.. If we can’t find the others soon, we’re _definitely_ in big trouble, Mario!”

Mario nodded in agreement, and then began walking to the edge of the platform, towards Starlow as he gestured his answer. _'Then we have to move forward… as much as it scares me, in all honesty..’_

“Yeah, you’re right.” Starlow nods, and smiles as reassuringly as possible towards her friend in red. “We’d better press on, then. Maybe someone might be nearby!”

Mario smiled back, feeling a surge of confidence, and he then gives a grin before running off the platform, jumping, and landing on the top platform stuck in the squishy insides of Bowser’s…. _wherever he and Starlow ended up._ After this, he navigated the area with Starlow alongside him.

For a good ten minutes, all Mario could see was weird blue landscapes and the pink-red squishy ground the plumber could only think of as some bizarre part of Bowser’s intestine. _Jeez, he was confused._ At least it didn’t smell _horrid_ in here, but the hero still wanted out of here and he still wanted to know that Luigi was okay.

On this similar trail went until Mario heard a groan, a loud but exhausted, drained groan. This voice was unfortunately very familiar to Mario, and his eyes soon found its source, with the taller person’s head being stuck completely in another amoeba the size of Starlow’s entire body. Luigi was unable to struggle, simply subdued by the creature using him for a snack.

“LUIGI!” Mario cried, running down the slope of fleshy pink-red material and skidding to a stop right under there. Starlow followed, then managed to yell up at Luigi, bobbing indignantly up and down.

“Luigi, why’re you goofing off up there?! Can you hear us?”

Luigi could only groan loudly in response, and the look on his face was a pained one, eyes forced closed by the draining effect the amoeba had on the poor man. Mario frowned in deep worry again, but not before shooting a look simply saying _'Don’t talk bad of Luigi!’_ at Starlow before she said anything, albeit after an awkward silence.

“..What to do here.. Mario, we have to help. Try jumping up and grabbing his legs. We can pull him down so he can get out of the amoeba that way.”

Mario nodded, bracing himself with a stance, poised like a cat about to pounce on its prey. Up he went, with Starlow tugging at Luigi’s torso with her magic as Mario grabbed his brother’s legs. After a minute, Luigi slid out and all three parties fell down, as well as bits of the amoeba, to the ground. Mario had fallen on his back, while Luigi had slammed down onto the ground facefirst.

_“Luigi? Fratello mio?”_ Mario asked softly, gently nudging his brother’s shoulder to rouse the younger of the two from sleep. No later than a minute after, Luigi awoke and sat up, standing up as well with a minor yelp of panic, and giving a soft but loud yawn before rubbing at his eyes.

Luigi himself looked around frantically with widened eyes and trembling hands, wondering if this was some awful dream, before spotting Mario near him. Tears instantly welled up in the tall plumber’s eyes, and he quickly wrapped Mario in a hug, with Mario returning the gesture of gratitude and relief as he too began crying again. Inbetween sobs, Luigi muttered about dreaming that he’d lost Mario, and that he’d thought he truly lost his dear brother.

Mario was crying within joy this time, though, that his brother was safe and sound, but then noticed past Luigi’s soft hair (now soiled with slime, unfortunately) that the amoeba parts had split into two in his distraction. Immediately, as if he could sense Mario’s very thoughts, Luigi straightened into a battle stance, blinking away the rest of his tears.

“Okay, guys, let’s stomp these guys!” Starlow yelled, and both brothers gave a nod in unison, each facing one of the amoebae that had so quickly sprung up. Mario then managed to dodge one of the attacks, and promptly stomped onto its squishy and translucent body.

As before, the fight was easy enough and over in about five minutes, although Luigi had tripped twice on the amoebae while the small battle was happening and they tried eating Starlow yet again, and when it was over, the brothers and the Star Sprite sighed in relief.

“Huh..?!” Luigi squeaked, hearing some rumbling behind him that was happening assumedly due to the defeat of the amoebae. As he tried to turn around to look upon it, he bonked his head on Starlow by accident with a loud _‘THUNK’_ , and fell to the ground with another yelp; as for the rumbling thing, it turned out to be a green pipe that jutted out from the fleshy pink-red mass of the area, apparently the way out of this particular part of Bowser’s body.

Luigi gave a glare at Starlow, his eyes narrowing and hardening into annoyance and irritation, all while Mario tried to sign to his brother to calm him down. _'Luigi, no, she’s **not** the enemy right now, so please try to calm down..’_

Starlow, meanwhile, was simply speaking her thoughts aloud in a sigh, looking up to the weird landscape. “Hmm.. Even in Bowser’s body, there are enemies to fight..”

The Star Sprite noticed the angry mumbling of Luigi under her, so she floated down to eye level with him, seeing the plumber’s face red with anger and mild embarrassment while he stomped his feet in a sort of angered tantrum.

“Hey, Luigi, maybe you should try to calm down for now..”

Luigi stopped stamping his feet and looked up, his expression turning apologetic soon after, and he rubbed the back of his head meekly before actually saying something.

“A-ah, sorry, Starlow.. What is it?” Luigi rose an eyebrow and stared up, waiting quietly for an answer to his question while messing with his mustache idly.

“Did you see Princess Peach anywhere? Mario and I haven’t had any luck finding her..” Starlow explained, looking a little worried as she voiced her concern to the other. Mario nodded in agreement, also having a look of concern on his face and a sort of thoughtful pose at the moment.

Luigi sighed sadly and shook his head no, tilting his hat slightly while answering his friend. “Nu-uh, Starlow.. I w-walked around a while after Bowser attacked us, but I didnt find her anywhere. I then g-got sucked up by the amoeba though.. I still feel a bit weak because of that stupid thing..”

“Hm.. Not you either, huh.. It looks like it’ll be hard to track her down, guys. …Oh, that’s right!” Starlow’s expression brightens at this and a smile finds itself on her face, and she smiles before continuing.

“We Star Sprites track all sorts of information, since we’re friends with friendly places like Evershade Valley, Flipside, and the Mushroom and Beanbean Kingdoms! So, if you need any help with anything, make sure to ask me, okay? I’ll also work with you guys to help further unpiece why the Blorbs and… uhh, _this_ is happening. You’re okay with that, right?”

The two brothers nodded and jumped once in place, and Starlow bobbed in place, feeling in better spirits now that she could help them.

_'I think we’re ready for now, Starlow,’_ Mario signaled with a tilt of his hat and a small smile, and Luigi went to stand behind his brother with a nod and a small smile with a confident enough statement. “Yeah, I’m ready to go, Starlow!”

Starlow gave a confirmatory nod in answer. “OK then, let’s go look for Princess Peach!”

The brothers then ran up the hill of fleshy pink-red material, almost slipping on it to reach the green pipe ahead. Once they got to the green structure, they climbed on in carefully, with Mario going first and Starlow going last. The only thoughts going through their heads was that they could leave Bowser’s body and be able to get to the bottom of two mysteries they didn’t ask for..


	8. A Journey from Above and Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that he, Starlow and Luigi are stuck within Bowser's body after Bowser apparently up and inhaled everyone, Mario has to find a way out as well as find Peach and the rest of those at her emergency conference, having been separated from everyone due to the chaos of earlier. 
> 
> Meanwhile, Fawful and Midbus finally put their dangerous and daring plan into action, after Fawful's success with the Vaccum Mushroom and the deception of Bowser. 
> 
> What lies ahead for our trio of heroes within the confines of Bowser..? Stay tuned!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { I had a bit of writer’s block for this fic in particular, so I apologize for the delay! I’ll be putting up a double-chapter update today/tonight since I finally got past my block on what to put on the storyline (thanks to my lovely beta reader Posi on my discord! Thanks!). This I had to split in two again, so I hope you don’t mind. ..Kinda filler chapter, since I cut it shorter, ahah. Hopefully after tonight's double update I'll be able to consistently update again. Enjoy! }

Fawful and Midbus had at last made it to the location of Cavi Cape as planned, and had already begun their trek into the cave via the soft-lit mountains. Thankfully, Bowser was still very much out like a light, likely due to the Mushroom Fawful had tricked the dragon-like Koopa into consuming, and the sleeping king lay haphazardly on Midbus’s shoulder, the one marked with an unusual light pink birthmark which resembled Midbus himself. Bowser was simply slung over the hot-pink boar’s shoulder, arms dangling over one side of Midbus while Midbus hung onto his legs, causing him to sway slightly as the large boar walked.

At the moment, the Beanish teenager himself was designing something new and definitely chewing the hell out of his pencil eraser as he did so, which was a robot with Fawful heads on them, or Mechawfuls as he had written in the journal he had- although he hadn’t used _them_ in almost _eight years_ , Fawful knew he could make improvements on the design to go up against Bowser. The Bean had actually gotten his journal in Rogueport, a lovely old journal he’d gotten with some strange lady with a myriad of other things. While he thought of the journal instead, he gave a sleepy yawn, causing Midbus to turn his head with a confused look towards Fawful.

“Ah, Midbus? I think I am having tiredness now..” Fawful said, rubbing at his eyes after removing his glasses and holding them with his journal in one hand while rubbing his heavy eyelids with his free hand, trying to be very careful not to break the glasses with his gauntlet-clad hand. “The exhaustion of Fawful… is catching up..”

“Don’t worry, Lord Fawful. You can nap soon,” Midbus rumbled, turning his head away from the tired Bean. “We are here now. It is a good spot to drop him off.”

Fawful had by now taken his glasses and put them back on, and was examining the current area carefully, leaning forward slightly from where he sat on the floating platform. There was a nice area of cave water underneath the part that he, Midbus and Bowser was on, and the cave was winding enough that perhaps it would buy time for him and Midbus, not to mention that Bowser hadn’t been woken up once, so it would be likely that the Koopa king would sleep for a while longer in a cool, dark and damp place like this.

“ _It is being a place of perfection!_ Good eye of seeing, Midbus! We’d better have the leaving of fastness before he has the up-waking..”

“Of course, Lord Fawful. You sleep now, Bowser..” Midbus responded, part of his words being softly spoken as Bowser was gingerly laid onto the ground and on his soft belly, splayed out awkwardly like he was a ragdoll. Then, the hot-pink boar quickly stood back up, and began walking in the other direction, his tail swishing around as he walked on his padded feet. Fawful followed, sitting on his platform as it floated along with Midbus at a quick pace.

“Hmm.. I have to be making obstacles of hardness for Bowser.. But not too much of the difficulty..” Fawful hummed, and he continued back to his designing of the Mechawfuls, leaving Bowser alone in the cave while they went out to set things in motion.

* * *

The trio of adventurers had arrived at another area, this time with some crates and other junk around the area. Starlow gave a soft frown at this and looked around, only spotting junk and more junk. Groaning, she turned to the brothers, who looked equally as displeased as she did at this point.

“Oh jeez… Looks like Bowser inhaled a _lot_ of junk, all kinds of it, huh?” Starlow commented, frowning softly before floating to a box that had a Hammer symbol upon its somehow unharmed surface. As much as she wanted to question its existence, she just couldn’t help but be grateful Bowser ate it anyway.

Excited, she hovered over it and bobbed in the air, as if to point at the wooden crate, as she happily belted out her joy. “Mario, Luigi, I think I might’ve found something useful! I think we could try to break it open somehow, maybe..”

“Hmm..” Luigi muttered in thought, tapping his foot lightly on the ground before speaking with a slight shrug in an uncertain-sounding voice towards Starlow, while glancing up at a ! block above their heads. A soft grin soon filled his face, and he hopped in place whilst pointing above himself. “Hey, maybe if we go ahead, we can find a way to get that block up there! That might help..”

“Good idea, Luigi! We’d best be getting up there so we can break the crate open,” Starlow agreed, with Mario nodding and patting his younger brother’s back in approval. Luigi felt grateful that Starlow had agreed so quickly to his suggestion, and so he and Mario went ahead and jumped to the platform- but as was common for Luigi, he ended up tripping on the squishy pink-red material once up there on the ledge, with Mario carefully helping him up again by lifting him up by the arms.

“Sorry, Mario..” Luigi sighed, rubbing the back of his head once he was up again, and frowning in a shy way of manner in embarrassment with the same emotion glittering in Luigi’s soft blue hues.

_‘It’s alright, Luigi, and I’ll be sure to help you out, brother,’_ Mario signed, smiling knowingly before walking along, with Luigi scrambling to follow quickly without tripping again. The area ahead was filled with what only the trio could describe as acid (stomach acid, probably, which worried Starlow due to where they were) below their feet.

Carefully, Mario and Luigi jumped across the sea of acid and pink-red mystery ground material, soon stopping for a familiar puzzle-piece-looking Block that Mario got excited about, signaled by his widened blue eyes and giddy attitude that followed.

_‘Ah, look, Luigi! This would definitely break that crate open for sure!’_ he almost incoherently gestured, to Starlow’s initial confusion, running under the four-colored block and breaking it open with gusto once he punched it. Promptly, out popped a red, yellow, blue and green puzzle-piece-like thing, marked with a tiny green Koopa Troopa’s shell to represent the attack that was supposed to be made with its corresponding counterparts. Upon examining it, Starlow’s eyes also lit up, and she zoomed forward to look at it as it rested in Mario’s hands, a grin soon filling her facial features.

“ _Whoa, is that an Attack Piece?_ I guess Bowser must’ve inhaled at least the remaining pieces with all that stuff he ate. I’ve never seen one of these in _person_ before, though..!

These things can produce _all sorts_ of attacks if one finds them all! There’s usually ten of these for a Special Attack, so I’m gonna bet the other nine must be ahead,” the Star Sprite blurted out, sounding very excited more and more by the second while speaking of it. It had been a while since Luigi and Mario had last seen one of the Attack Pieces, so it was understandable why Mario was so excited about it now.

_'Well, if it’ll break open the crate.. Then we should find the rest up ahead. Perhaps it can reach that ! Block we found earlier. It looks like a Koopa Troopa shell-themed attack, so it may work if we throw it at the Block.’_ Mario seemed enthusiastic about the idea from how fast he was signing everything, and Luigi and Starlow nodded, almost unable to understand any of Mario’s words due to how quickly he’d given a gesture for it all.

“At least slow down, though, Big Bro… Your hands’ll cramp if you sign too fast,” Luigi reminded the shorter of the plumbers, while Mario handed off the Attack Piece to Starlow for safekeeping. “Remember when you had a hand cramp while reprimanding those Koopas at the Glitz Pit? You told me about that..”

Mario’s face fell slightly and he went redder than his clothes, looking away with a quick gesture of _'Don’t remind me, Luigi..’_ a second later. Starlow giggled a little, although she didn’t know what Luigi was referring to as the Glitz Pit at the moment. Was that some kind of fighting joint or something that Mario had been in?

“Let’s just get going, guys.. Bowser won’t be out forever, y’know,” Starlow said, nudging Mario’s head very gently with a headbutt to get him to walk forward towards the next room again. Mario gave a nod in acknowledgement, and with that, he and Luigi jumped across to the other side of the current room to go and find the rest of those Attack Pieces.


	9. Next Time, Don’t Trust The Mushroom Vendor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { this chap is... incredibly long. Writing out this part of the intro to the game is.. tiring. Really. Kinda hard to spice it up when all it is, is really dialogues and me trying to convey Bowser's sprite movements accurately. 
> 
> Hope this is enjoyed nonetheless. Thanks for bein patient with me! }

Bowser was stuck in a sea of silence as he slept, although for some reason he could faintly hear something beyond the silence. Something like voices, one that was very high-pitched and two that were lower in pitch but with an accent to it, so far it felt like some dream. Infact, he could somehow make out words out of the blurriness. _Was it a minion of his that found him in the weird forest? Had the shopkeeper been a bad dream made up by his hurting brain?_

The high pitched voice spoke, as if in thought, and his exhausted mind began to wonder if it was him they were speaking of. It almost sounded like they were right next to him, and yet they sounded so far away, like they were in a cavern that was too big. 

_"...This can't be... ...Yeah, it has to be something..!"_

Bowser, still way, way too exhausted to really be in more than sleep paralysis at this point, tried to somehow strain to hear this voice. _What were they saying? Had his eight children come and save him? Was that **Junior** , **Larry** perhaps, who spoke? _ Only those two had such high pitches, even for their respective ages that were not too young anymore.

Again, he heard something very faintly, now the gentle murmur of water nearby, the coldness that he assumed was possibly stone pressing against his cheeks and stomach, somehow comforting enough for him to stay put. His throat felt quite raw, as if he'd coughed and sneezed too much in the span of many hours at once, and yet he couldn't move an inch or get enough energy to get his stubborn doors for eyelids to open up. 

_"...Head in there, guys! You... shouldn't miss it..."  
"...Hey!... What.... you mean..? ....all.... this stuff... ...low?" _

_**Too** faint to make out_ , Bowser thought sleepily, wanting the voices to either stop or get loud enough for him to actually tell what was going on. Stuff? Did they mean the crashed trees, perhaps that weird merchant's weird stuff? Kamek panicking his butt off? What did these words mean? 

_"..This!... sticking-out... connected to... stimulate this thing... happen...!"_

The tired Koopa didn't know at all what it was referring to, and all he wanted to do was go back to his castle and take a vacation for a while, mainly a nice nap with his bed being as cool as the stone he semi-slept on. Yet, the Koopa's muscles kept refusing to budge, and his eyelids were just way too stubborn to listen to him.

Bowser wanted to respond, he wanted to get up and leave wherever he was, but he was simply stuck, and too tired to comprehend any of what he thought he was hearing in his dreams. _Or were the voices real? A hallucination?_ Then... a lightning burst shot through his stomach area and rippled through the rest of him, and a harsh and oddly quiet roar escaped his lips as he spasmed on the ground briefly before landing back on the stone. Bowser could definitely tell it was stone now, especially since his eyes snapped open to see its color briefly to be some purple color.

**"W-WOWCH!** Augh..." Bowser finally was able to open his amber-crimson eyes, and he shakily sat up after initially jolting up too quickly, shaking his head to clear the fogginess and the headache he felt from sleeping too long. His tail twitched as he tried to look around, finding his whole body simply couldn't stop trembling, and he wondered again if he had gotten very sick. Another jolt of agony shot through his stomach again, and he clutched the sensitive area tightly, nearly falling backwards onto his spiked shell. Bowser's spiked tail twitched angrily in pain, and he squeezed his eyelids shut again, suddenly wishing for sleep again.

**"OW!** W-what the _hell_ did I even _eat?!_ O-oh, did I get _f-food poisoning?!_ Ugh... This is some _serious_ pain in my g-gut...!" 

Bowser gritted his teeth, not feeling well enough to actually stand anymore, having to take deep, sharp breaths to try and clear his body of the very feeling of sickness. Bowser did truly feel awful at the moment, and to top it all off, a third wave of pain soon struck him, and he coughed and growled at the same time, feeling damn near tempted to simply pass out again until the pain went away. At least, that was until he heard the faint voice again, the words in particular getting his interest again.

_"...That got him up... **HEY, CAN YOU HEAR ME?** "_ the voice spoke, their ending words loud enough that Bowser could reasonably classify it as being close to him.

"! H-huh..?!" 

Bowser managed to detach his arms from himself long enough to notice the shaking finally stop, and the pain began to subside as he quit squeezing his eyes shut, blinking in complete confusion. How come was that odd voice from earlier... louder now? A bit spooked, Bowser tried to look around at his surroundings again, this time deciding to stand up and turn as much as possible. The Koopa sure didn't see anyone speak, though, so he spoke loud, not near yelling since he didn't want to bother his already aching throat. 

"W-what the h-...! Hey, is somebody out there?!" 

A few moments of silence passed, and Bowser didn't feel any calmer, infact he began to feel very panicky now, beginning to feel his tail tremble in slight fear and worry again. He looked around, widened amber-crimson eyes glancing around for the shadows of someone or perhaps a light source, but he spotted none of that, not even the sound of someone else breathing near him. 

"Who said that, anyway? W-where am I?!" he asked again, half-demanding an answer now, panic making his voice a lot sharper than it usually would be, sharp enough to make him wince at his throat pain from speaking. By full honesty, the Koopa hadn't panicked hard like this since the whole Shroobs incident, one of which he'd had to be informed of by his children, where weird time holes showed up. Not to mention the weird mushroom he'd ate back then... which kind of reminded him of _this_ , if he thought about it.. 

_"Don't bother looking, Bowser! I'm actually here, in your body and all that!"_ The sound of the voice startled Bowser out of his panicked thoughts, but he felt a slight bit of anger at hearing that last part, mixed with slight... _disgust._ In his body? Bowser's face scrunched up and one of his fire-red eyebrows lifted in confusion, his fanged mouth contorting into a confused/angry frown at this news. 

" _Y-you're kidding me, right?!_ It's in my _**BODY?!** Seriously?_" he growled, although he still felt like glass shards had apparently also been eaten recently. Had he eaten glass shards? He... didn't remember that part, sadly, not past the weird vendor, anyway.. "Hey you, in there, you'd better tell me this. **_WHAT ARE YOU?!_** And _why in the name of the Star Spirits are you in my god-damned **BODY?!**_ " 

The next sentence that came gave off a hint of geunine surprise, or slight shock, neither one of which Bowser could discern from the voice tone too well due to how not close it really was. _"You don't remember..? At Peach's Castle earlier, when you..?"_

"Peach's Castle? Well, I know Mario pounded me at Peach's earlier..." Bowser crossed his arms and closed his eyes, trying to dig all the memories out within his thoughts to try and piece together what had happened to get what the being had said. "Then I ended up getting chucked into a forest, where Kamek was looking for me.. I don't really remember the rest..." 

Bowser un-crossed his arms, then glanced downwards to better direct his voice towards whoever happened to be in his stomach or wherever the being was. A dismayed sigh left the being, and they spoke once again, sounding disappointed. 

_"Oh..? You don't...?"_

" _Dammit_ , I forgot to mention this, sorry... But I _do_ also remember I ate this _really_ weird mushroom, and I got it from this cloaked weirdo with glasses in that forest... They were some _weird_ forest mushrooms... _he'd_ said they'd help me beat Mario... _hmm..._ " Briefly in his memory, he thought of the silver-cloaked merchant he'd met, with the unsettling grin and strange speech to go with his weird appearance, weird products to offer and weird swirly specs. With a huff, unable to remember anything past Kamek warning him not to eat the damn Mushroom, he uncrossed his arms a second time, growling in frustration. 

"I don't _get_ it! I don't get _any_ of what _even_ happened to me at **_ALL!_** _This is fucking **stupid!**_ " Bowser complained, stamping his feet slightly on the stone underneath him and waving his fists as his entire face twisted in his fervent frustration, eyes glaring ahead with the very essence of irritation glittering in a sea of fire-red.  "And _you_ , partying in my bod while I was totally passed out?! _How **DARE** you?!_ " 

Another sigh, then the voice seemed to quiet down, thankfully in his irritation he did not hear what it had to say. 

Meanwhile, back down in Bowser's nerve area, Starlow gave a semi-defeated sigh, glancing up at where she'd floated moments ago to speak to Bowser, grumbles of various cuss words in both Italian and English flowing out of the Koopa's mouth and being heard by the whole group. 

"At least we're lucky that he doesn't seem to remember.. We'd best not tell him he inhaled us just yet," Starlow said, seeming to glisten a bit with sweat from how nervous she'd been. Mario gently patted Starlow on the head, with the Star Sprite gratefully accepting the pats, and the Italian soon signed _'Good luck!'_ with a nervous smile. 

Starlow then floated back up and yelled again at Bowser. "Hey, maybe I should explain who I am later, Bowser. It's a fairly long story to listen to.." 

Back outside, Bowser's face scrunched up, now with a different expression of displeasure at this, and he frowned deeply as he glanced down at himself again, another irritated growl escaping his already irritated throat. 

"Hey, hold on a second! A long story? Man, I _hate_ boring and long stories.." Then Bowser stopped mid-sentence, realization hitting him almost as forceful as a bus, and more confused words left his lips. "Wait, uhh... You, in my bod! I think I've _definitely_ heard your voice before, it sounds _awfully_ familiar..."

_"Oh... Really? That's.. weird.."_ the voice said to him, sounding uneasy about what he'd said. **_Perhaps I scared them?_** Bowser thought, raising an amber-crimson eyebrow slightly again at their words. _"To change the subject, perhaps try to see where you are right now? We might get closer to **solving** what happened.. if you **know** where you've ended up.." _

"Oh, yeah, right! Where am I, then..?" 

Now Bowser looked around yet again, this time taking in details he'd ignored earlier when he was in a panicked state. The purple and magenta colors of the cave walls and floor almost immediately caught the Koopa king's notice, and the murmur of water alerted him to the sight of cyan-blue cave water stirring below where he currently stood. It wasn't too quiet, but the silence that was around kinda creeped Bowser out a little, but... in a calming way, sort of. _Now_ he sort of understood the appeal of such a place to his adopted son Morton Jr., who loved caves for some reason.. 

"It's kind of a dim.. dark cave. _What in the world_ am I doing _here_ in a stupid dim and dark cave, anyhow? This place isn't one bit _familiar_ to me!" he answered, partly for himself and partly for the one within his stomach, who simply answered with another soft question. 

_"..A cave?"_

"..Yeah.." Bowser sighed, letting things outside go silent so he could listen to the water and try to better remember what had happened after he'd trusted that weirdo from the forest. _Now, what could have happened to me_ , the Koopa thought in a pensive silence, _what did this guy do to me? Why do I feel so skeeved out more than usual?  
_

Bowser seated himself once more, tapping his tail lightly on the ground with the most confused look on his face that he’d produced in the last 20 minutes of conversing and all. Bowser was just a mess of confusion, the emotion showing strongly in how he continually tapped his spiked tail on the ground, his fingers drumming continuously against his crossed arms and his frown only growing ever deeper. _  
_


	10. The Worst Memory Loss Incident In… A Few Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so under dubious circumstances, Bowser has somehow ended up in an unusual cave far from Peach's Castle, now being forced to cooperate with the likes of the "mysterious voice" in his stomach. 
> 
> How will he take such news? Probably horribly, knowing HIS history. As for the voice itself? Bowser's hard to work with in any circumstance regardless, so Starlow can only hope for a decent outcome..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { yes hello I Live 
> 
> I actually had a ton of fun writing this one, only if it WAS for the funny interaction between Starlow and Bowser here. Also if you squint enough you'll see at least three references to past games that happened prior to now in Bowser's history. 
> 
> Enjoy this chapter! :3 }

Starlow felt nervousness bubble up in her stomach after speaking her question, taking the temporary moment of silence from Bowser to float back down to the Bros, with Luigi mouthing at her _'What's going on, Starlow?'_ with a questioning look and a gesture upwards to indicate Bowser, who had by now gotten up again and began pacing around while he thought, feet softly stomping around as he went back and forth in the small cave area, face scrunched together in thought.

"Well... He doesn't seem to remember inhaling us. At least, not right now.." Starlow answered quietly, shaking her head lightly with a soft frown with her eyes blinking slowly. "Bowser doesn't know where he is at the moment, either. It doesn't sound too familiar to me, at least.. This is just plain _bizarre_ , guys.."

Mario frowned, lifting his red hat off his head and scratching at his hair with a thoughtful look, while Luigi seated himself on the ground and looked upward to his brother and Starlow, crossing his arms and tapping a finger to his chin also. Worry was reflected in Mario's blue eyes, and it took a moment for the red-clad plumber to answer the Star Sprite's thoughts, mainly with his entire body radiating anxiety from the current events unfolding around him.

_'..Maybe this is Fawful's doing too, the “disposing” of Bowser, I mean.. Considering that he did say that the merchant he'd met had glasses. The Gera person also really resembled Fawful to me because of those glasses and the cloak.. The personality definitely makes me think Gera was just an **alias.**.'_ the Italian signed, a grim dread soon appearing to darken his expression and furthering the notion that he was definitely at least _scared_ of the thought.

"Maybe.. But just what happened up there to get us all to the cave? We don't know how a kid could've gotten Bowser here.." Starlow sighed, before going back up to Bowser and yelling up at him again. _"Hey, you up there!"_

Back outside of the Koopa's body, Bowser himself was jolted out of his thoughts, which was actually to go find Kamek after he got out of the cave and hunt down that wicked merchant and make him go back to normal, and the Koopa grumbled something at the voice. _"What_ do you _want?_ I was sitting here minding my own business.."

_"Shouldn't you find a way out of that cave out there? I mean, you can't loiter there forever, Bowser.."_

Bowser balled his fists and growled at the voice, grinding his teeth in indignation at the one inside of him. "I was gonna do that anyway, _genius!_ First order of business is to find my dad, Kamek. The Star Spirits only knows where he is right now..."

The last part was a mutter to himself as the voice seemed to also say something he couldn't hear, other than _"...do his thing for a while._ ", and the Koopa took a few deep, rumbling breaths before beginning to walk around. It was a bit chilly in the otherwise humid cave, and for once it made Bowser get a shiver down his spine and spiky tail as he walked out of the cave area he was in.

The Koopa put his hand to the stony, damp magenta walls as he walked around, getting a feel for how the place felt to him, and he looked down at the glowing water below him with a curiosity he hadn't felt since he was a child, since the Shroobs had happened and that whole... _Star Children_ thing he barely remembered about. At least that time had allowed him some exploration of the world around him, something he felt he now _lacked_ nowadays, even with his exploits trying to take over the world and even the failed _**universal domination**_ attempts. _Never again,_ Bowser thought to himself, _never again will I try to defeat_ **Rosalina** _. That was a total **disaster** of planning and executing on **so** many levels. **Good grief**. _

Bowser's stomping filled the air, but a little more softly than usual for him, mainly since he actually felt kinda crummy at the moment and he also wanted to take in the scenery. Perhaps the Koopa king would take a nice nap when he got back to the Castle, before he went and hunted down that _runt_ that made him feel _crappy_ in the first place. Bowser shook his head at himself to try and focus as he approached some boulders, cleanly punching them and then going on his way as if nothing had happened. At least he could still punch stuff in this sick-feeling state-- if anything, knowing how to throw a good punch had gotten him out of plenty of sticky situations as a teen, he remembered with a small smirk of sharp teeth at himself.

After a minute, Bowser realized that there were some tree-like structures, and from tilting his head he could see the light of the evening sunset starting to peek out from the cave exit. Smirking, he stomped confidently up to the trees, showing plenty of fang as he stopped in front of the stalks with total confidence within his crimson eyes and the way he stood, the way his tail waved around a bit as he pumped himself up.

" _ **Gwahaha!**_ Take a look at these flimsy sticks! Time for some _burnage_!" he cheerily bellowed, inhaling and preparing to build up the flames inside him..

..but as he let out the breath, the confident roar and pushing of air, nothing happened. Bowser shut his mouth shortly after, confused that nothing but his roaring had filled the silence of the purple cave. _Darn, let's try again, Bowser Get focused on burning those trees._ The Koopa once again inhaled, only after coughing and clearing his throat just incase his current state might've messed up his focus. Then, more forcefully this time, Bowser let out his breath in another roar, but yet again, he didn't feel heat leaving his lips and snout, only hot breath that he was sure smelled of mushroom long digested.

"Dammit..! Come _on_ , Bowser..!" he growled, once again feeling panic lancing him in the chest as he desparately tried again and again to breathe fire, only hearing the sounds of his own breath going in and out of his mouth. Bowser hadn't even felt the familiar heat going up his throat this time, so that should have been a warning already that something was more wrong than the vague nausea feeling he still had in the pits of his stomach.

Bowser confusedly put his hand up to his drying throat, turning away from the trees in a mix of irritation, fear and plain confusion as he tried again to breathe some fire. Sadly once again, he found nothing even happened, just his already tender throat beginning to ache from the forced roaring from his sad attempts. " _What happened?!_ Why'd no flames come out _this_ time? _Where'd they **go?!** _...Wait a second..."

Bowser now glared at his stomach, jamming a clawed finger into the soft area with impatience in the action, and feeling a bit of the usual pain one would feel when poking their stomach so harshly. "Hey, you down there, in my belly! Wake up! I have a bone to pick with you, and not _literally!_ "

_"...?! What's the matter? What's wrong?"_ the voice inquired, having responded almost immediately to Bowser's prodding and half-panicked ordering at it. It sounded startled, sure, but it also sounded... almost nonchalant, as if the voice was an expert in harsh sarcasm like Ludwig and Wendy and Roy were. No matter, Bowser decided internally,

"I'll tell you what's up-- my flames aren't _working! **At all!**_ I bet you must've messed something up in there, you little _weasel!_ " the king hissed bitterly, once again angrily prodding at his own stomach with a furious glare that he doubted the being in there could _see_ at the moment. "Man, I bet you were trying to _sabotage_ me and ended up getting me in trouble, weren't you?!"

_"First of all, I didn't touch **anything** in here, **you overgrown turtle!** Second of all, I have no intentions of EVER sabotaging you! **YELLO GOODBYE!** " _the voice yelled, sounding more indignant itself by the second as each of its words reached Bowser's hidden auditory sensory glands, or whatever Ludwig happened to call those. _"Do **not** blame me for this! **You're** the one that trusted that stupid merchant!!" _

" _WELL,_ **_JERKY,_** I DIDN'T HAVE TROUBLES UNTIL _YOU_ EVEN GOT IN _THERE!_ I WAS A MEAN, _BURNING_ MACHINE, AND _YOU BROKE ME!_ " the Koopa roared, his fury-inducing voice filling the entire cavern and bouncing off everything so much, the place seemed to tremble slightly at the pure power of the king's screaming and childish foot-stomping of the stone floor beneath him. **_"FIRE ME BACK UP, NOW, OR YOU'RE TOAST WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THERE!"_**

Cue the sharp exhaling of irritation from the voice in him, and Bowser panted while clenching his fists before the voice spoke again, also clearly trying to not be pissed at the time being. Then, sternly, the voice confronted Bowser, as if it was lecturing him like Kamek used to do to him as a younger, admittedly less dangerous Koopa prince.

_"Now how about you just **wait** a sec, Bowser? What would I have to gain by not letting your flame system work, anyway? Think about it.."_

"Oh, _come on_ , buddy," Bowser argued in a semi-childish manner, rolling his eyes and stamping his padded feet on the ground yet again, which ached from all that stamping, to seemingly nothing before continuing. "Leave the damn logic to _Kamek_ and my son _Kooky_ , alright?! I need you to get it through your skull, if you even _have_ one. I REALLY _NEED_ to breathe fire at _all times!_ "

The voice growled under its breath and seemed to say something Bowser suspected was cuss words in a language obviously not Italian or Shroobish before it answered his semi-rant again. _"I'm sure you do, Bowser, and I'm also certain **I'm** not the one who managed to disable it! You did inhale some Toads-- one of **THEM** likely messed it up! **Not. Me!** So have fun trying to defeat your enemies now, since you won't be ever using your fire for the rest of your natural life! I hope you have a good time with that, you **big baby!** Yello goodbye, **AGAIN**!" _

The realization struck the poor, fuming Koopa like a big, spiky bus that the voice, whomever it was, wasn't going to help him now unless he properly cooperated, but he realized this small mistake too late, it seemed.

"H-hey! HEY, COME BACK!" Bowser tried to say, but he got no answer this time, just the murmur of the cave's water system below him and the echo of his own voice, until the latter faded from his hearing. Bowser sighed grumpily, glancing over to the trees and then walking up to them, his sharp claws digging deep into the bark and strong wood underneath it.

"Good _fucking_ going, **_Bowser Vermillion_** , you messed it up like usual, _dumbass,_ " he growled to himself, smacking his forehead with the palm of his free hand in self-anger before clawing the tree, stepping back from it and crossing his arms. "This is absolute _garbage_... total _bull_ crap... I have **got** to get my fire back on track, before I end up in a fight I can't win.. Someday I'll get that **punk** for messing me up in the first place..."

Bowser inhaled and exhaled deeply like Iggy had to for his social anxiety and Roy for his anger, allowing his internal fury at the situation (and himself) to finally soothe and be quelled down til the very emotion managed to leave him and his thoughts and body at last. Now currently all that was left was some exhaustion from his battle with Mario and the illness that mushroom had given him, and Bowser soon began stomping away from the trees, punching his way through more boulders as if they were merely sand bits.

"I have got to find Kamek, _pronto_.. He's got enough medical experience and Koopa anatomy knowledge to last a damn lifetime or two. He'll know what to do."

With that, Bowser exited the cave and went outside, seeing the yellow-golden skies as the sunset further lowered itself down. Clouds littered the skies, and below the entire mountain-like area Bowser could see a vast lake of some kind, enough to vaguely see the outline of Darklands territory off in the distance, denoted by the darkened volcanic soil and hardy bushes. At least, he could take comfort in that it was fairly close to his borders, so he could get to ONE of his castles in the area... provided he could find a way around the lake that didn't involve needing to swim a ridiculous amount of time.

The scenery provided some calm to Bowser, for it was a pretty nice change of pace for the scenery category to look at the sun as it climbed down its borders to its nightly disappearance. Bowser started walking again, just to hear what sounded like whirring, ringing through the otherwise quiet air and ruining Bowser’s sense of peace and tranquility. The large dragon-like Koopa stopped for a moment, seeing a brief flash of somehow-familiar red and gold and green pass his peripheral vision.

"H-huh?! _HEY!_ "

Bowser stomped forwards with light irritation in his expression while he knitted his eyebrows together, stopping only when the source of the whirring ceased its movement and simply hovered in front of him, easily blocking his path by pure annoyance. Bowser was kinda shocked this was happening now, but maybe that voice had been right about things...


	11. A Plan of Pure Brilliance and Fury (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { I actually am half-done with Chapter 12 as I post this here, but I think I may not update it until Saturday at best. 
> 
> I hope it'll be okay, since that'll be the appearance of a certain group of Koopas, finally!~ }

The Beanish boy chuckled in a high-pitched cacophony of malice as he sat casually on the floating platform, grinning widely at the Koopa king from above with that creepy grin of his. The Bean’s hair fluttered a little bit in the gentle wind, and of course, he radiated a confidence that could piss off anyone. It truly irritated the hell out of Bowser seeing that smug and creepy _smile_ , and it almost then reminded him yet again of that merchant, making him wonder about what that voice had told him. About... _not_ blaming that being for his problems..

But for now, Bowser wanted to know why the child was here and annoying him, he wanted answers and if he had to break the child's machinery to get them, then so be it. So the Koopa proceeded to stomp his right foot on the ground and point a clawed finger at the inventor with equal irritation glittering in his eyes as his fiery hair puffed up slightly, his voice becoming gritty and sharp at the same time with the very emotion.

"Hey, kid! _Quit_ floating for a second! I need to talk to you! Get down here at _once_ , young man!" 

The young Bean's eyebrows furrow slightly at hearing this, both in confusion and in irritation, and he floats away to another position, with Bowser quickly following him with clenched fists and more irritation to follow, obviously unhappy that the younger of the pair _hadn’t_ listened to the Koopa. 

So, the teenaged Bean sat criss-crossed on his platform and readjusted his navy sweater, tilting his head and letting his face contort into a sort of half-mocking, half-confused mix as he gave a few blinks at the other. 

"...Huh? Why are you having the face of surprise, Bowser? Was there the forgetting of me for a moment there?" he teased, soon dodging a rock tossed angrily at him from the aformentioned, pissed-off turtle who glared at him for that comment, then hissed at him with the angered tone of voice.

"...I don't think I completely forgot _you_... You only had to open that stupid mouth of yours to remind me, _weirdo!_ You're the one who _tricked_ me into eating that stupid weird mushroom in the first place, _aren't you?!_ " Bowser rebutted at the Beanish teenager, gritting his fanged teeth against each other in a clear act of fury at the other, who simply laughed it off and made Bowser even more pissed off internally, firing off a barrage of internal cuss words as his gaze turned sharp and harsh towards the Bean. 

"Ahahah! Wasn't it being of deliciousness, though? So many others have had the falling to its abilities before because of its taste of sweetness, hehe! You are certanly having correctness in that I am being the one responsible for it. I had the bringing of this Mushroom of Vacuum all the way from Sarasaland, something that is being a special treat for the consuming of Bowser!" 

Bowser felt a chill come down his spine at realizing again who the Beanish inventor was in front of him, grinning once again and showing him a map of Sarasaland. Sure, he'd heard of it because of their own monarch, who was tough as his claws and spikes and much more, but he'd never heard of the supposedly "lucky" mushroom he'd had the unfortunate mistake of consuming. 

_...This was Fawful, wasn't it?_ the Koopa thought to himself, his angered body language turning to a frightened one as he stopped clenching his fists entirely and began to stare in horror. Bowser just _couldn’t_ believe what he was thinking to himself, that Fawful would _ever_ hurt _his children_ and betray the friendship the Bean had made a year ago with the Koopalings in question. 

Fawful continued when he got no response from the now shocked-looking Koopa in front of him, giggling manically before he spoke again, clasping his hands (ableit a little weirdly since his right hand had the gauntlet on) and tossimh the map of Sarasaland to the ground carelessly. 

"I had the modifying of it so that you would be inhaling everything that is being in your sight! And Fawful can have the betting you are remembering nothing of my act of brilliance, are you?" 

Bowser's irises shrunk to mere pinpricks, and he stepped backwards, almost bumping into Fawful's platform as he did so, then turning once again to try facing the horrible young man near him. Bowser felt absolute shock that apparently, this mushroom had definitely made him black out and do something he didn’t remember-- _perhaps this was what the being in his body was talking about.._. Now he worried about what he'd done, if Kamek had been able to stop him or if he'd done it uncontrollably until his poor body could take no more of it, and his tail began to droop and tremble behind him like a scared dog while he nervously glanced at the ground instead of looking at Fawful. 

At the same time, he was absolutely aggravated at the fact that not only had he let himself be tricked, but that Fawful had completely betrayed his trust by doing this! Over what exactly, he didn't know, and this simply made him more scared to find out, incase the child was going to do something so idiotic it'd end up likely killing him in the same fashion as Cackletta died.. 

Fawful himself was greatly overjoyed at the reaction of the very Koopa he used to fear so much, silently taking in every bit of Bowser's fear, anxiety and pure, undiluted rage with curious, giddy eyes from behind the thick, swirly glasses. So he was not surprised when Bowser did speak up, fear and rage and confusion swirling in the Koopa's eyes as they stared up into his own.

" _Then what **happened?!**_ I'd love to at least know before I punch you and your stupid platform off this planet, _Fawful!_ You _can't_ just do this without at least giving us a three-day notice, Sherlock!" the Koopa bellowed, cracking his fingers within a newfound anger to try hiding away his anxiety about the safety of his troops and his family thanks to this. At least, it was still entertaining to Fawful, who just giggled at Bowser again before standing up, proudly putting his hands on his hips and leaning forwards slightly to be towering over the other. 

"I am not being _Sherlock_ , whoever they are being. I am being _Fawful_. But, if you have the insistence, I will be spilling the beans, no intending of the pun included~.

After you had the eating of the Mushroom of suction, you were having the inhaling as if you were being a great hurricane of a buffet of a continent that was being made entirely by food. Then you had much of the napping, so I had the bringing of you here so you would not be interfering! What a better scheme of evilness than I had the having 7 years of past experiencing ago, right?"

Bowser only stared blankly at Fawful, letting the younger person's words sink in for a moment as he thought about it. It hadn't clicked at first that the merchant was Fawful himself, but considering that Fawful had redeemed himself a year earlier by befriending his children... now he wondered if it was all a lie now. If it was... 

Then, he felt his fear dissipate as his fury came on full force again, knowing that Fawful had made him do this, and despite not being able to breathe fire, he felt his tail spike up with his dangerous emotion as he bellowed out, every fang in his mouth on full sharp display as the words were directed very loudly to Fawful's not-visible ears. Even if the cuss words that were to spill from his mouth were likely not intended for Fawful to hear, because he didn't want Fawful picking such bad words up from him.

"WHAT?! Fawful, what the hell do you have against me? What beef do I have with you other than this bullshit?!" 

Fawful actually flinched at the roar, to Bowser's surprise, and then the Bean regained his composure a moment later, grinning once again and raising his arms as he shrugged at the large Koopa, who seemed to get angrier and angrier with every passing second as he puffed up and bared his fangs at the Bean. 

"Beef..? But I am lacking in beef. Fawful is _beefless_. You should have the knowing of that, Bowser, or else I would have been fighting you myself already.."

Bowser grumbled and crossed his burly arms with a dark look of fury towards Fawful, uttering more of what Fawful assumed was cuss words (which they WERE, just not _English_ ones) under his breath, likely phrases like _"sounds like bullshit, kiddo, but I'll believe it for now"_. Bowser only turned slightly when Fawful floated around on his platform again, sitting back down with his legs dangling over the edge and his hands keeping him steady on the metallic, painted transportation he had. 

"But I am having a goal of ultimatium, Bowser of Koopa royalness. The Kingdom of Mushrooms... _WILL BE BELONGING TO ME, **FAWFUL GERAKOBITTSU!** "_ the teenaged Bean bellowed, jumping up and raising his gauntlet hand to the sky in a dramatic force whilst his red-and-golden cape flew upwards and slowly billowed back down against his small body. Bowser's eyes locked onto it, having never seen the thing before. The blue gem core reminded him greatly of Cackletta immediately, the one time he'd met her in her actual form prior to Bowletta being when he'd first seen that color of topaz. _Was Fawful a magic user now...?_

"Heehehe! With the fink-rats gone, the Kingdom of Mushrooms is being vulnerable, it is being ripe for the power of them snacking on my fury and greatness! The Great Cackletta would have all of the prideness for Fawful if I was getting that kingdom to be calling my own!" Fawful chuckled darkly and turned his platform towards the sunset, crossing his arms. 

As Fawful spoke to Bowser, the Koopa then realized much of what was happening was connected to other things that had recently been going on that his children had been trying to bring to his attention, relating to the Blorbs..

Iggy had told Bowser a “friend” in the evil world had asked him on advice on how to artificially grow Mushrooms, especially Sammer-specific ones like the Mystery Mushroom... Then Kamek had been warning Bowser for the past three months that he kept sensing Cackletta's magic, or a symbol of her, would return somehow in the form of something she left behind... and then, about three days prior to Peach’s conference, the Blorbs had actually gotten to the University of Goom (the Toad transfers, but there was worry about it getting to the Goomba students as well..) and it was scaring Ludwig's acquaintance Professor Frankly.. 

It all made _sense_ to Bowser now, or at least enough- Fawful was the ultimate cause of the Blorbs, helped by Iggy, and the plan perhaps was related to Cackletta in some way. Probably revenge against him and the Mario Bros for ultimately leading to her permanent death.. 

"...It was all you, wasn't it, Fawful? _You're the cause of the Blorbs!_ " Bowser hissed with acid within his voice, pointing a clawed finger again at Fawful while the rest of him itched to punch Fawful clean off the platform and into the lake below them. A strong stomp had filled the air from his heavy foot as he yelled at Fawful, and for a moment Bowser thought his chest had felt a little warmer, as if he was trying to breathe fire again, but he still couldn’t.

"You have correctness, Bowser," Fawful confirmed, nodding with a grim smirk whilst relishing in the older person's madness. "That and the Mushroom of suction becoming yours is all being part of the plan to be satisfying my hunger of fury for what had the happening so long ago! And yet, I still have _hunger_ , so much hunger for the _revenge_ that I want to be raining down like rain of acidity..”  
  
Bowser growled in irritation at the young Bean, clenching and unclenching his fists and crossing his arms as he would when trying to ground Junior for something really unacceptable the boy would do. "You're nuts, kiddo!"

"Nu-uh, no... I am not being hungry for _nuts_ , Bowser. I am having hunger for _**kingdom conquering**_ , and it will be starting with the Kingdom of Mushrooms! Now with the emptying of the Castle of Peach... _The Castle of Koopas will have the becoming of Fawful's ownership next!_ " Fawful rambled on, jumping a few times on his platform, his gauntlet glowing wildly with magenta glowing as he continued to talk. 

"Wait, what? Back it up, Fawful! What _are_ you meaning with this, kid? Slow down and explain yourself, _now!_ " 

Little did Bowser know, this plan had already been set in motion before, as Fawful sat down and decided to tell Bowser to simply make him madder, since he was so proud in his new abilities and knowledge... even if currently, he felt terrible for pulling it off in the way he did... With a sickening grin full of fury and pride, Fawful started to speak, his voice being filled with a dark purpose. 

"Then let me be telling you how, since you are being _so_ curious, King of Koopas... _Bowser Koopa..._ " 

**_{ -- To Be Continued -- }_ **


	12. A Plan of Pure Brillance and Fury (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { okay since it's been a while I need to say I apologize for just the potentially singular update this week.
> 
> Basically, school happened and it was incredibly stressful on my part, so I didn't feel up to editing and posting the chapter til now. Hopefully I can get back on my usual attempted schedule of two updates a week, so maybe there will be another update tomorrow, but I am not banking on that. 
> 
> Anyways, there's an incredibly long chapter ahead, so please bear with me! }

Bits of orange-yellow embers danced through the incredibly humid volcanic air as the day went on at its usual pace, the environment mostly unchanged from the most recent raid of the place by Mario, now that it was rebuilt. Koopa Guards, decked out in metallic blue and silver armor and spears for weapons within their hands, were stationed around the large castle, watching the area very carefully and marching around occasionally, just to return to where they began their watch. This was the kind of environment that wasn’t good for most who tried to sneak in- it was tailored in a way that normally, sneaking in wasn’t possible, except for Mario, of course.

But for a certain grey-cloaked “merchant” waiting behind a rock with his head only just peeking out, not too close to the sweltering magma below him, this was perfect. Only a few guards were actually out and about today from what he could see from the dark boulder, for most f these guards had gone in search of Bowser, led by Kammy Koopa, so it was good to at least try sneaking in for the purposes of his plans.

The “merchant” in question carefully glanced at the castle doors for a moment, his glasses glinting in the light of the lava around the place as he gazed around some more, then he hid again behind the huge boulder and chuckled darkly to himself, not bothering to cover his mouth since all the volcanic winds blocked most sound out of the air. Nobody to notice _him_ , which was great, because he could try to waltz into the castle for what he needed. Or something. Maybe this should have been thought out more, but confidence was key, a lesson from Cackletta.

“Good. This will be easy like bread making.. First, the flour that will be Fawful sneaking in..” Fawful giggled to himself with a sickening grin under the cloak, tugging his uncomfortably warm hood over his head a bit more before he snapped his fingers, disappearing from sight to others but himself via a magic spell he’d learned. Then, the invisible Fawful began to run as fast as his legs could carry him, soon finding the brimstone balcony he was looking for– Junior’s room, from what the young Koopa prince had described himself, which had only a single guard posted there. Bowser had insisted on there being at least one guard, from what the last letter of Iggy’s had described due to the Blorbs situation.

The cloaked Bean waited for a moment til the guard looked the other way while quietly rummaging in his cloak, then he tossed up a sleek but strong black grapple hook, feeling a grand satisfaction in his chest when the hook wrapped around one of the small pillars of the balcony’s wall. Then, carefully, Fawful activated the automatic pulley in his silver cloak, and up he went, boot-covered feet scraping so quietly against the volcanic stone of the castle wall that he was not initially noticed, even if he was panting from the running and physical effort he’d put up.

_“…?”_ The guard heard a soft thump very close to him, like boots hitting the stone balcony’s floor, and gripped his gloved hands around his spear’s spine in apprehension, nervous brown eyes looking around for the source of the noise from their visor. The guard didn’t see anything near him, but he faintly heard breathing close to him, right near his neck as breath steamed there. Something then pressed hard against his neck while something like a hand held him in place by his arm as he wiggled, and he lost consciousness instantly, eyelids fluttering shut whilst he fell to the ground in a heap, spear and all.

Fawful, still cloaked and still invisible, laughed softly in triumph that he’d made it up with no challenge at all, but he also felt secretly **disappointed** that there wasn’t much of a challenge. No matter, he had to find the place he was looking for, and that was Iggy and Lemmy’s room, so he could “borrow” one of their sprayers for his plans, since he currently didn’t have his Headgear available at the moment. It wasn’t a good idea to use such serums as he had with him in a non-gas form, anywho.. that was like dumping liquid perfume on oneself. _Not fun._

Unlocking the balcony window-door with ease, thanks to lockpicking skills he had learned from Ms. Mowz, one of his best traders, he quickly slipped in and shut the window-door as quietly but fast as he possibly could manage, with the door clicking quietly behind him. This was _technically_ his first time inside the youngest Koopaling’s room, and as Junior had warned him when the two first met, it was a hell of a _mess_ and stuff was lying everywhere in the room. But it was not the kind of mess he had exactly… **_Expected._**

Instead of too many dirty clothes and gross stuff like Lemmy had joked, there was actually a lot of art supplies around the place– well, and a pile of dirty pajamas and bandannas near the closet door, so at least that last part fit the description. Mostly around though, was closed bottles of different kinds of inks and paints and half-open bags of brushes, which he had to very carefully step around to avoid breaking. 

Paintings, likely just practice ones from the looks of the scribble-like quality that looked like hard work was put into, also were hung up amid the boy’s posters of soccer games and other stuff Fawful didn’t know well- but the paintings were familiar-looking. They consisted mostly of Bowser himself, Luigi (for some reason), and the other Koopalings. Ludwig, Iggy and Larry showed up the most as paintings alongside Junior himself.

Fawful also saw some unfamiliar machine and a “TV” as Larry had called it (a flat plastic thing, with wires ahoy that attached to the wall sockets), with little controllers attached that had bits slightly scratched out, likely from Junior’s small claws on his fingers. At last, though, the teenaged Bean made it to the huge twin doors of Junior’s room, and he pushed it open the best he could, soon looking down the hall both ways to see if anyone had yet noticed his presence. Other than a single guard way down the hallway that seemed to be napping, there was nobody to stop him. ~~Or so he had thought, but he wasn’t _that_ good at predicting the future yet.~~

Fawful soon went completely out of Junior’s room, closing the door carefully behind him as to not further make noise in his invisible state, he could be caught even if he was not visible to others, knowing how the Koopas and especially the other Koopalings were. This action was barely noticed at all by the dozing Koopa guard, so Fawful decided to go down the hall completely and check each room to see where Iggy and Lemmy’s room was, beginning to walk off in one direction- the other end of the hall.

Well, that _WAS_ his plan, but soon enough he felt something come to his back and grasp the cloth there, two somethings, and by the texture Fawful immediately recognized one of them as the tip of a wand. Magikoopa’s wand, to be exact, but the problem was, he didn’t know the Koopalings by magic signature just yet. Just by their voice and appearance and some of their auditory movements like walking. From the footsteps, though, Fawful figured at least one of the Koopalings in question was Roy or Morton…

And speaking of _voices_ , a semi-strong German accented voice half-whispered from behind him as if in hiding himself, something managing to grasp his cloak once again despite him being invisible to others’ eyesight. _Clearly_ , though, he still wasn’t experienced with this, not enough to avoid the strongest of the family within magic use behind him at this very moment.

“…Now, _why_ are you here? Are you planning to steal something, _Dieb_? Are you responsible for Father’s disappearance?”

**_Ludwig von Koopa._** Fawful somehow already knew it was Ludwig that was for sure behind him, from the accent and now the strong signature to go with it, and it made him nervous that he’d been caught so easily when he’d been trying to be careful. _But would Ludwig recognize him..?_ The teenaged Bean hoped that wouldn’t be the case, so he managed to wiggle out of Ludwig’s grip after a second or two, turned around so he faced the two Koopas, and straightened his hood enough to where only the glasses could be seen. Then, he snapped his fingers on his gauntlet hand (which he was quickly removing from his hand, as for the other two not to see it), and he reappeared in the sight of Ludwig and his companion, slightly sooty from being outside for as long as he was. 

“…! Huh?! Ludwig, who the _hell–_ ” the other Koopa, who turned out to be the sunglasses-clad Roy Koopa anyway, managed to sputter in shock and slight anger before Ludwig shushed him with a stern look. “Quiet, _Bruder_. Let him speak for himself. As for you, sorcerer, what is your purpose here?”

“…” Fawful said nothing, and he didn’t even move an inch from where he stood, only opting to stare at Ludwig for a few moments. Then, he spoke, keeping an eerily neutral face as he did so, keeping his head low enough for his tuft of black hair to stay hidden.

“…I need something from Ignatius Koopa. I heard he had a sprayer, and I need one for a magical healing potion I made. I’m sorry I broke in, but I doubt I would be let in otherwise.”

“…Well, you could have simply asked about him. Although you do have a point, my friend, they’re pretty picky..

..And _he_ just goes by Iggy.” Ludwig replied slowly but slowly more in a trusting tone, and Fawful silently exhaled in relief that he’d managed to get Ludwig to believe the partial lie. 

Ludwig carefully took Fawful’s hand with his own clawed hand as Roy walked behind the pair, then brought the Beanish inventor to a door with a LOT of **_“Caution! Do Not Enter!!”_** signs all over it in neat handwriting, likely Iggy’s or Ludwig’s work. This door was labeled with “Iggy and Lemmy’s place” as well, in two different handwritings, and Roy gave a very sharp knock on the door.

…A manic laugh answered the knock and reminded Fawful yet again of Cackletta’s own manic laughter of the past, and then out came a very tall Koopa with blue, pink and golden hair, and large glasses. He and Ludwig had been currently holding a mini-meeting with the remaining Koopalings, save for Junior, in the big, sciencey room, which was as expected, also a gigantic mess of equipment and Lemmy’s toys and balancing balls.

Lemmy, the smallest of them all, was asleep and leaning on his circus ball on his bed, while Morton, the other beefy Koopaling with barely any hair and a star on one of his small eyes, was humming boredly to himself, Larry, with his wild blue hair, was playing on something that looked like E. Gadd’s Game Boy Horror, and Wendy, with her bow and sharp ice blue eyes, was writing in her diary with a determined look in her eyes.

As for Iggy, who had definitely opened the door, grinned at Ludwig, seemingly not seeing the hooded Fawful for a few good seconds as Roy re-entered the room quietly to get past Iggy, presumably to speak to Larry for a bit as Ludwig took care of things. Iggy then spoke, his voice bringing some unsettling mania to the air that somehow comforted Fawful in how familiar it was to Cackletta’s old zeal, staring into Ludwig’s deep sapphire eyes with his own swirly teal ones.

“Oh, hello, my dearly esteemed Kooky~ What happened, monsters, intruders, anything?”

Ludwig rolled his eyes almost automatically at this, likely due to the nickname being used for him by the lanky Koopa in front of him, and he shakes his head, gently pushing the cloaked Fawful into the room before coming in and closing the door behind him. “No, Iggy, it’s likely the one who asked how to grow those artificial Mushrooms and all. He says he needs a sprayer for a potion of some sort. I think he just… _broke in_ , from Junior’s room. He’s apologized, though, so I hope Kammy won’t mind him visiting.”

Iggy carefully looked over the cloaked Beanish inventor with his swirled eyes, then sniffed him, for some reason, smelling the telltale soot smell most visitors gained when entering this place for the first time. After a few seconds, the brightly-haired mad scientist giggled in a giddy manner, nodding at Ludwig with enthusiasm in his actions before he headed over to some big shelf, motioning for Fawful to follow with an excited wave of his hand. Fawful followed eagerly, even though Iggy’s hair was still bright and like Lemmy’s own bright hair, although more stuck together with the blurring of the three main colors. At least it wasn’t a _disaster mess_ like Ludwig’s.

“Yes, it’s him, I can tell, Ludwig. It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Gera, how are you doing? Did that plan of yours work out nicely?” Iggy inquired, shuffling through various tools and inventions in the huge shelf, which like Iggy’s state of mind, was a complete wreck inside, but in a somehow organized way, or else Iggy would never find anything most days he did experiments. 

“I am doing well. And, well, the plan IS working swimmingly so far. The mushrooms grew nicely where I lived, so thank you for helping me with that.” Fawful allowed himself a nice smile towards Iggy after speaking (normally, so nobody had a hint to his identity via speech pattern), who warmly received it before resuming his rummaging around for the sprayer.

“Ah, sorry for my delay, then,” Iggy said with his voice muffled by stuff in the shelf, “I haven’t really used those things in a while for anything but watering Chompella, ahaha! She’s very picky on how she gets her dihydrogren oxide, kind of like the sort of Mushroom you’ve been growing… Oh, _where_ did I even put that _blasted_ sprayer…”

Iggy dug all sorts of stuff out of the very messy shelf area, to the amusement of Fawful and a now awakened Lemmy who watched in interest, from random boxes of nuts and bolts to a Golden Mushroom, and it took a good 10 minutes for him to look through it all, resulting in somewhat of a bigger mess. 

By now, everyone else was attempting to ignore the large amount of noise this generated, mainly Roy, Morton and Larry, who were talking worriedly about the Blorbs in the University of Goom, and Wendy had by now began listening to her own music on some headphones and a flat device that Fawful couldn’t identify as anything familiar to him.

Eventually, Iggy hopped up and down in place in front of the shelf, cheerfully bringing out something that looked like a smaller Headgear/Vacuum Helmet, its name depending on who asked, and Lemmy brightened up and spoke loudly. “Did ya find the sprayer, Iggy? Did ya?”

“ _Yep, here it is!~_ I actually built it after one of our acquaintance, Fawful’s, older models, something he showed me when he showed up at Ludwig’s concert in the Beanbean Kingdom. 

Well, he showed his _first blueprints_ , anyway, the actual first successful one got destroyed by Mario and Luigi, apparently… Ah, no matter! Here you go, Gera! Just pour the potion into the clear chamber here.. careful about it, I don’t want any spills...”

Iggy helped Fawful open the helmet up since, well, Fawful “was lacking in beef” as he’d said in idle conversation to the tall Koopa mad scientist, and Fawful began to pour a magenta liquid into the chamber, which filled up very fast. While Ludwig watched this, he suddenly got a really bad feeling twisting his guts inside himself, as if he shouldn’t have so easily trusted Gera, as Iggy was calling him. That liquid gave him a sense of utmost _malice_ and foreboding, and it unnerved him so bad Roy seemed to appear in about three seconds to check on him when his tail did so much as begin to droop.

“‘Ey. Ludwig, you okay over here? Ya look like somethin’ crawled into your stomach and burnt to a crisp _again_..” Roy murmured aloud, turning Ludwig to face him, the latter of which was frowning deeply within his anxiety about the situation whilst his one large fang stuck out like a sore thumb. Sighing, Ludwig let the breath stream out of him before choosing to reveal why he was so nervous, feeling his tail droop against his dark blue shell for real this time.

“Roy… I do _not_ trust Gera,” Ludwig whispered, his hair beginning to stand on end even more than it usually would as he looked back at what Fawful and Iggy were doing with the sprayer. Almost five bottles of magenta liquid had now been emptied into the sprayer’s main container, which wasn’t even close to full, only being half-full of the stuff, which for some reason emitted a sort of mocha/mint smell, from where the two Koopa brother stood in the middle of the room.

“I… I have a bad feeling about him, Roy. I’m very worried that he may pose a risk to everyone here.. Plus, there are rumors about the Blorbs and that _he_ may be connected..” Ludwig continued, becoming visibly distressed as he began to consider the idea himself. There was _no way_ he could allow harm to come to his brothers and sister, and it was becoming clear to him that Gera may not be who he seemed..

It kinda unsettled both Ludwig and Roy at the very thought, making both have a shiver down their back, seeing as they acted as the guardians of the other six Koopalings, and thus felt that it wouldn’t be right if they let their siblings be harmed. Before either brother could further discuss the issue, the cloaked Bean soon had backed away to their direction, and some words, not from “Gera”, were now clashing through the air and breaking Ludwig’s organized thoughts into shards of paper.

“Oooookay, Gera, I think it’s full now,” Iggy suddenly announced, and Ludwig and Roy turned to look at the sprayer. Indeed, it was now very full of the mystery magneta-colored serum “Gera” had brought with him, and Iggy had already activated its flying mechanism, allowing the young Bean to be strapped to the sprayer. “There ya go! Now you don’t have to carry it, it’s much easier!”

“Good!” was all the cloaked Beanish teenager answered with, floating in midair due to the essentially rebuilt Headgear-like sprayer strapped carefully ontop of his head, which was why he’d backed up from the shelf earlier. Ludwig was too vividly reminded of _Fawful’s_ demeanor, of what he did remember of the Bean before he’d gotten controlled in the time of Bowletta. Fawful had even personally recounted those events and verified that it had been his fault... and he had apologized deeply. _So why was Gera doing the same?_

_Wait,_ Ludwig thought briefly before the chaos that would ensue in a few moments more, _why did Gera really need the sprayer…?!_

“…I am having apology… But this _was_ being the only way…” Gera spoke, before letting out a sudden high-pitched laugh of held-back fury. **_“AND HERE IS MY ENTRANCE OF DRAMA!”_**

Ludwig registered this change in “Gera’s” speech too late, as he soon had to deal with a magenta mist that came from the sprayer that came as the furious Beanish inventor initiated his form of ambush. Ludwig coughed and coughed as this mist overwhelmed him and clouded his sight full of magenta, just barely seeing Roy attempting to clear the area to at least save Morton, Lemmy, Larry and Wendy from the sudden blast of the controlling serum, who also seemed to be coughing roughly from its pure strength. Panic laced all the Koopalings’ movements, with Morton’s anxiety-filled mumbles and coughs mingling with Lemmy’s harsher coughs and Roy’s yelling within panic and confusion at everyone to get out as fast as possible.

“Huh?! Star Spirits give me mercy..! Aw man, this is BAD!” Larry said in a startled daze, dropping his video game handheld and falling over on his shell before Morton grabbed him by the shell at Roy’s direction, while Roy himself had already been trying to get Wendy to move from her spot, with Wendy struggling due to starting to lose consciousness. Lemmy had already passed out again, having inhaled too much of the mist already due to the sudden attack on Fawful’s part.

It again was scented of peppermint mocha, that much Ludwig could fully confirm in his thoughts, what it had smelled like seven years ago, before Junior had been old enough to remember. Ludwig himself was very scared for his and his siblings’s safety, silently praying that Junior was not at the castle as he tried to stumble to the doors in a growing, darkening haze of panic and exhaustion.

“Ludwig!” Roy called out whilst preparing his wand for battle, almost too late, and the pink-headed Koopa tried to get to his brother, also coughing as the serum was absorbed into his body. Everyone else was coughing and attempting to cover their mouths but it was no use against the mist, no use against Fawful’s uncanny ability to take all by surprise, even as Roy tried shooting magic spells haphazardly at Fawful to take the sprayer down.

Infact, Fawful was successfully able to evade the potion, and was high above the Koopalings, watching as each one tried to leave but lost consciousness as the serum took hold on their minds. one by one unable to fight back any further. Somehow, it took longer for Iggy and Roy in particular to fall, mainly because they kept trying and failing to defeat him with stubbornness that rivaled Bowser himself, but it was too easy for Ludwig to get overwhelmed by the mist, with the 20-something Koopa too weak to stay standing any longer whilst he tripped on his own feet.

The last thing Ludwig himself would perceive before losing consciousness as he fell down, and thus control over himself, was seeing Iggy lunge at Fawful to try preventing him from attacking the rest of the castle, and most importantly, Junior.

“I’m… so _sorry_ … I can’t… stay.. awake….. R-roy... e-every.... on...e...”

Ludwig finally fell asleep while sprawled out near the door awkwardly, having inhaled enough of the serum to lose consciousness for the time being. Soon enough, he would be completely under Fawful’s control, like before. His last thought was that if Junior and Kammy could escape, he hoped they were able to do it fast, or maybe Iggy or Roy could save them…

* * *

 

It had taken almost five extra minutes for Iggy and Roy to lose consciousness, and by this time, Fawful had left the room and had advanced quite fast through the castle, eventually running off by foot with the sprayer after expending half of the serum.

Fawful had by now put his cloak back in proper order as its red and golden brilliance, and he had by now ordered the recently-finished Mechawful droids to decimate the castle and anyone that tried to resist captured, having run from the Koopalings’ hall with a scratch or two from Iggy and Roy before they too lost consciousness. 

The castle became more and more bombarded with every minute, with most, if not all, of the army that tried to fight back thrown out and captured. The main Goomba, Boo, Shy Guy and Magikoopa guards had been taken out, the minions they had been overseeing now under the control of the serum from him.

Fawful himself had been able to modify the sprayer after the castle came under his control, hours later, and now it was tucked under his cloak to have Midbus carry when they met back up. Oddly, despite having done all that in about two hours’ time without stopping until now, the Bean _did_ feel awfully guilty in his mind about having to bend the trust of the Koopalings, including that of Ludwig, Roy and Iggy, the main three that he felt were role models of sorts to him.. mostly Ludwig, though, as he was the eldest and smartest of them.

But if he was going to achieve these plans, Fawful knew it was just needed, ultimately it would be good in the end if this worked out as such, so it saved him less pain to deal with when _she_ was with him again. Besides, it would piss off Bowser and thus make him more emotionally compromised enough for him to be distracted in some way..

_“Lord Fawful?”_ Fawful snapped out of his daze and his inner thoughts to dig out the radio he and Midbus had stolen prior to things, a radio he’d actually stolen from the University of Goom while there, and he took it out– a handheld type usually for Bowser’s guards– from his cloak before speaking back to the boar.

“Yessing, Midbus? What is it being? What is the status of the king who is having stupidity?” Fawful questioned, genuinely curious about what had happened on Cavi Cape while he’d been taking care of the threat of the Koopalings and the rest of Bowser’s army, for that matter. Whatever he’d been doing with the semi-old Headgear was put away as he spoke. And now as he listened intently to Midbus, Fawful sat pensively on the grass of the friendly forest, staring ahead at some random Goombas that he’d decided to leave alone.

_“I have begun hearing Bowser finally. He is awake, Lord Fawful. He is not happy..”_ the hot-pink boar replied, sounding a bit smug even with the radio being choppy about it. This was actually _good_ news to Fawful, seeing as he’d pretty much just gotten Bowser’s castle under his control, and he’d asked Midbus to keep an eye on Bowser until he was able to go gloat and the like.

“Ah, that is being good.. We are needing the discussing later, hehe~. I just had the capture of the Castle of Koopas, which is being the meat of doom on this takeover sandwich! The serum had the improvement this time.. although Iggy and Roy were having some of the resistance to it still.”

_“At least it worked, didn’t it? That should give us time for our actual plans..”_ Midbus said, sounding a little happier at the news from the other end, but slightly confused since he didn’t know who Roy or Iggy was. _“I will meet you at the base of the mountain. See you then, Lord Fawful.”_

“I will be seeing you, Midbus, thankings for having the guarding of Bowser for me.” Fawful then walked over to a nearby tree where he was, having flown over the lake to get here, and took out his floating platform from the tree’s knothole where he had been sitting near, but not before replacing the platform with the sprayer, since for now he wasn’t going to return here until after he went to check on Bowser. Well, maybe he wouldn’t need it, since his new Headgear was finished now..

With that done and over with for the time being, however, Fawful got onto the floating platform carefully and headed upwards to the top of Cavi Cape’s heights, seating himself comfortably there as he soon spotted a touch of golden-yellow, forest green and fire-red colors off to his right. It was Bowser, and Fawful veered off to the right to go greet the soon-to-be-angered Koopa monarch.


	13. Nothing Stops Me… Nothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> { Oooookay, so thanks to life, school, and a huge 2-week-period this month as well as in March, I had to take a hiatus from this story for basically three months. Hgh, sorry about that, dear audience.
> 
> But now, I think I’ve got a bit of drive to go ahead with this story again! Hopefully my updates will be a little less sporadic like this one! (and hopefully this update is okay.. ahaha) }

Bowser's shock and horror at Fawful's tale, not said in words but his widened eyes and distraught tears beginning to leave his overflowing tearducts, could only fill the empty silence that followed moments after Fawful recounted the last of what he thought Bowser needed to know, the former of which was still sitting on his floating platform snugly, the malice not so obvious in his tone at the end of the terrible tale he spun.

The horrified Koopa monarch could say nothing yet to Fawful, only staring deeply into Fawful's now crazed-looking glasses, suddenly feeling an urge to throw up again. Or was that to slurp up everything in sight, potentially endangering the people he had inhaled earlier? Bowser felt too panicked to try to discern which it was now, as the realization of things simply became too much for the poor man to handle.

_"...Bowser? Are you alright?"_ the mysterious guide in his body asked, sounding cautious and serious, as if 15 minutes earlier hadn't yet happened. It was thankfully, enough to temporarily stop Bowser from wanting to completely hurl Fawful off of the platform, tumbling into the deep lake below. Even the mental image couldn’t get him to calm down, to not immediately panic and become furious all in the same breath and give Fawful the satisfaction of having torn him apart inside and out. 

Bowser blinked out of his stupor, quickly walking away from Fawful to avoid having the child hear everything and see the oncoming breakdown, finding himself feeling very queasy again, although this time it wasn't that mushroom's doing that. Bowser really wanted to throw up again now, if only because his internal fears of what Fawful had done had been realized, and it was when he once again reached the cave entrance that he let himself speak.

"...T-this isn't the best time... Didn't y-you hear what he said? He hurt my kids, do you u-understand?!" he hissed, swallowing back bile and a sob while staring at his hands, unable to help but let out a few tears. The Koopa king's tail had lowered against the ground, his entire body trembling with the hurricane miasma of emotions that he felt, almost feeling like something in him had broken again.

"T-that... _monster_ of a child hurt them, and he could definitely fucking hurt Junior now that Kammy failed me, now that I failed **_them_**! I couldn't d-do a single thing about it... _I don't know what the fuck to do anymore...!_ "

Bowser slid down until his rump touched the ground, his ability to hold back his angry and saddened sobs back completely diminished. He was so upset, he could only think out the ranting cuss words of many blending languages as he buried his head in his massive clawed hands, vaguely combing through his fiery crimson hair to try to regain his composure. Tears flooded his soft cheeks and his fanged frown became a horrified grimace at the possibility that his children might be harmed or worse.

Back in Bowser's stomach, mostly lingering in the nerve area, Starlow and the two plumbers heard every last word spoken in the past fifteen minutes between Bowser and Fawful, now resigned to hearing the faint sobbing of the poor Koopa as his own emotions overwhelmed him in a sea of scary truths. The area around them trembled deeply, fitting considering everything that the trio had just heard come out of Fawful's mouth, and the Bros were also equally horrified to hear the story, gaining frowns and widened blue eyes as they stared upwards.

"..How... how could Fawful do that...?" Luigi finally asked, quiet and quavery in manner, after about a minute or two of listening to Bowser's crying from above. Mario simply sat where he was, staring blankly at the ground with a deep frown of anxiety and glassy blue eyes in silence.

"..Bowser's right.. Fawful does sound like an absolute monster. Maybe there's a reason he's doing all of this... he sure as hell isn't telling _US_ that, though.. and I doubt he'll say it so early.." Starlow answered, looking a bit crestfallen herself, with her own frown and sadness in her soft brown hues. But the Star Sprite gave a deep exhale, trying to bury her own horror with anger, her eyes sharpening like knives.

"At the same time, though... We _can't_ just sit here and let him do the same to the rest of the Kingdoms! Dammit, I promised you guys I'd help!"

Luigi and Mario were a little surprised at Starlow's tone of voice, and only went silent as she yelled up at Bowser once more, sounding shaky but determined anyway as words flowed out of her mouth like the power of light she emitted. Up she floated to her proper spot, nudging against the nerve wall before actually talking, just to get Bowser to try and pay attention to her.

_"HEY! Please, listen to me! You kinda need it right now!"_

Bowser panted with nausea, only letting out a weakened growl in response, as he didn't feel up to a proper response, what with his upset fervor about what Fawful had done to his castle, his army and his family. But, he would listen, if it would help him beat Fawful somehow, if it would free his children from what Fawful had done. The Star Sprite inside the Koopa continued to speak, trying to reassure Bowser as best as she possibly could.

_"Yeah, what Fawful did was really messed up! I know, it's probably really hard to lose a good friend! I've felt it before. But that doesn't mean we can just sit here and give up!  
_

_**I'M NOT ALLOWING IT!** " _

"..H-how can I fight him _now?_ " Bowser quavered in response to his internal companion, standing up and trying to stop crying so much. "He took out my entire army... he controlled my kids, again... Fawful's had a damn thousands-of-years old witch that's possessed me as his mentor. I don't have my fire, and I'm kind of too weak to do anything but give up at this point, weird being in my stomach. How can I expect to do anything?"

"...I know as hell you're more stubborn than that, Bowser! You called me a punk a while ago, and now you're just giving up? You said you were going to chase the person down responsible for keeping you from Peach. Would a person that gives up ever be able to get any empires? An army, for that matter?" the voice boldly said, sounding a little less shaky with each word they spoke in his ears, audible only to him and to nobody else.

"..No," Bowser said glumly in answer, lowering his hands from his body very slowly, a look of grief still plastered onto his face, but he felt his tears begin to slow down with the motivational speech directed to his unseen ears.

_"Look here. Fawful's likely the cause of a lot of damage to you, like the loss of your fire and your army.. The most you can do is fight until our games end, like you usually do-- drown Fawful in your stubborn attitude til he cries uncle.  
_

_You'd not give up so easy with Mario, I'm sure, you've gone all-out to stop Mario in the past. So I don't suggest you just... **lie over** for Fawful. You're **still** stronger than he is.. and I'm not gonna stop nagging you until **you** realize that. Alright?" _

"..." Bowser initially said nothing, still staring at his feet.

"Bowser. You heard me," the voice reminded sharply, and Bowser shook his head again as if he'd gotten it wet, but this time to clear his thoughts and whatever leftover tears were left in him. Mostly, the feeling of panic had drained enough out of him to respond, and he once more rubbed at his eyes, which had begun drying by now.

"Yeah, yeah, I get your drift, pipsqueak. Sorry to disappoint you," Bowser growled quietly at his belly, this time managing to cheer up somewhat, even giving a soft pat towards the area. The weird being was right about their point, he _was_ a pretty stubborn guy most of the time. After a few exhales or two to completely cool down the emotions enough that they wouldn't slow him down at the current time, Bowser turned back to Fawful, who now looked on in shock at the sudden lack of tears and sobbing, leaning back on the platform like some silly anime villain who’d just been slapped in the face.

"Eh? I thought you would be snacking on your sadness still.. Are you even having a heart?" Fawful asked aloud, blinking in confusion behind the swirled glasses as he perked up in his surprise. "Have you had the losing of your marbles of _sanity?_ "

"Pfft, _sure_ I have!" Bowser let out a half-confident eyeroll at Fawful while wiping away what tears he hadn't gotten rid of before, which only further succeeded in completely confusing the Beanish inventor on the odd platform. "And you're completely kidding yourself, not me! My castle's gonna be just fine, after I'm done with you, punk!"

"...My name is not being "punk", it is being Fawful. We'll have the seeing about the one who is being the owner of the Castle of Koopas, then.." Fawful growled, floating yet another direction before continuing, standing up again and balling his gloved fists while the strange gauntlet's blue topaz core glowed with a furious red color.

"Besides, why did you have the up-waking so suddenly? Fawful was thinking you would have the sleeping like a bear of laziness.. Perhaps you should be taking a nap... forever!"

Fawful let out a high-pitched laugh so loud, it caused Bowser to have to cover his hidden eardrums before they shattered under the weight of the Beanish teen's fury-filled 'chortles'. Then, Fawful turned around slightly on the mint-green platform as if he were a very graceful ice skater like Wendy, and cupped his hands around his mouth to call out his command to the air, for its hidden recipient that hid behind a boulder in the area.

"MIDBUS! We must have the leaving, now! Have the hurrying!" the manic-like Bean yelled out to the side, swiping his left hand in the air, when small 'thumps' going away from the area began to indicate that 'Midbus' had indeed heard him. Then, he simply floated away from the scene quickly, causing Bowser's mood to switch to ambivalence and irritation.

"Wh- _HEY! COME BACK, FAWFUL, I'M SO NOT DONE WITH YOU! **COWARD!** " _Bowser bellowed furiously in the Bean’s direction while shaking a fist, stomping forward quickly a moment after and attempting to run after the manic Bean as fast as he possibly could. His feet danced across the ground faster than he expected while sprinting, but soon enough he no longer saw Fawful.

"Damn Mushroom... It's making me feel cruddy.." Bowser growled to himself, panting and trying not to tremble too much as he stood there. Chuboombas, some of the strongest in Bowser's workforce in terms of muscle power, wandered the area around the ledge he was on, and some unfamiliar bugs of some sort also went about their way, as if the rising supervillains hadn't disturbed the area at all. "Ugh.. I _definitely_ can't fight in this condition.. **_Fuck_** , the one time I’m away from Kamek and literally everything goes wrong.."

_"..Bowser?"_ the voice within his stomach asked, cautious and gentle considering Bowser was currently angry enough to punch a rock into space, but was too exhausted to actually do so.

With a raised crimson eyebrow, the Koopa glanced down at his stomach and then sat down, poking at it. "..Hey, are ya listening down there? I gotta talk to you, being in my gut!"

_"..Yes, I hear you, Bowser. Just hearing what Fawful's gonna do.. I'm worried."_  
Bowser nodded towards his stomach, sighing and combing through his fiery red-orange hair again as he once again spoke his thoughts aloud. "I agree with you on that one.. But, I'm going to go to my castle. I really have to check on the kids.. I'd rather make sure they're alright before I go through with flinging Fawful to the ends of the fucking planet.."

_"Bowser,"_ the voice said in some form of reprimanding way, _"that's not a good idea, you silly! We should go to Peach's Castle instead! We HAVE to!"_

The Koopa immediately crossed his arms and gave the world an unimpressed eyeroll, knowing that the being in his stomach wouldn't see it but likely would know he did it. "Ugh, what am I, a stars-damned taxi from Brooklyn? Do ya want a five-course meal, coffee, and massage with that, bud?"

"..." The voice said nothing, and its owner was giving a puzzled look towards Bowser's voice within the confines of the Koopa's body. Mario and Luigi were having to muffle their giggling behind their clothes, not willing to admit that Bowser's rebuttal was honestly quite amusing to the pair of plumbers.

Bowser then huffed from back outside and poked his stomach again with another unimpressed and now irritated look within his fire-red eyes. "Like I told you, my castle and my kids are in a lot of danger right now. If we don't head there this instant, I swear to the damn stars that beany weirdo is going to get it! I'd rather game-over right fucking here than let him have my castle!"

_"...Alright, I understand. Do as you must, Bowser. At least tell me you'll be careful getting there, okay?"_

Bowser grinned at his stomach and got up, hearing more random mumbling from the voice within his body but deciding not to comment directly on that. A deep chuckle left his achey throat and his tail perked up while he descended down the mountain a bit. A determined sort of attitude now seemed to surround Bowser, as the Koopa went on his journey to the castle that waited for him in the distance.

"Yeah, yeah, I will.. and when I do get there, Fawful's going to regret hurting my troops and my family.. _He won't get within an inch of the Stupid Kingdom, not if I have any say in it!_ "

The grin on his face widened and became toothy as he slightly picked up the pace, wanting to hurry up so he could get to his castle. Bowser did know that he had to go around that lake area to get to the far-away castle, now he just hoped he could get there before Fawful managed to hurt everyone else with the weapons and knowledge he possessed.


	14. Sea, Sand and Blocks (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> { hey hey everyone! I do apologize about the second hiatus here, I'm sorry to say that I lost my computer about a month after the last update, so I've had to do with just my personal tablet and let's just say it's not very good. 
> 
> But I have decided that despite the circumstances, I'm going to go ahead and try to update stuff again! This chapter is probably going to be split into two parts, so the second part will come eventually. Thank you, dear audience, for being so patient! I am very happy for the support and am psyched to come back to this since I am hopefully getting another computer this month! }

                                                                                       _Chapter 14 -- Sea, Sand and Blocks (Part 1)_  

Bowser took a deep breath when he finally reached another cavern, taking a seat near a dark rock slab with some variant of Kingdom Common (usually some form of English) carved on the surface. "Phew," the Koopa sighed, "that took way longer than I wanted.. Hmm.."

The Koopa read the apparent sign while tracing his claws over the writing, kind of squinting due to the somewhat small writing. "Let's see.. It says here that from this area, Blubble Lake is north and Plack Beach is just outside, to the east.. Sounds about right. Don't you think, weird being in my stomach?"

 _"...I haven't been to the Mushroom Kingdom aside from Star Hill.."_ the voice within the monarch's body admitted in an embarrassed tone. _"I'm a visitor to the Kingdom."_

Bowser blinked and tilted his head, patting his stomach. "Ah, alright. I didn't know, bwahah. That's okay, though, we'll get you nice and acquainted with the place! I think I'm starting to remember this region a bit better now, if I'm honest.. I just didn't remember these caves existed before. I kinda hear the ocean now.." he trailed off, straining his hearing and indeed being greeted with a faint sound of waves beating against rocks and sand. Getting up carefully and giving a careful stretch to his achey body, Bowser soon sauntered off to the east, coming outside and discovering a warm, sunny day.

The semi-wet and warmed sand was welcome to the Koopa's sensitive pads on his feet, and he stretched again with a yawn, grinning. "Man, it's real nice out today! It's really sunny out, perfect for a stay here! ..Infact, I think I remember the place a bit.."

 _"Do you recognize Plack Beach?"_ the voice asked from inside him, and Bowser responded with a hearty laugh, his fangs showing as he gave a wider grin and he began walking away from the entrance to the caves he'd left.

" _Hell yeah I do!_ Sometimes I take my kids out here for some relaxation time since it's kinda close to my personal summer castle back near the Koopa Kingdom. Lemmy especially would love this part of the beach, it's got a lot of seashells and weird teeth stuff. I _think_ Kamek said the beach was named after a pun.." the monarch recounted, becoming lost again in his own past memories as he idly picked up shells and Coins while walking along. "I can see why, though. This place has rocks made of the same stuff teeth is! _Calcium_! So really old locals of the place many years ago formed all the rocks into teeth shapes, and it looks like weird monsters became teeth-like too. I heard from Kamek that the locals used the rocks as weird teeth armor.. Ew.."

 _"Ech,"_ the voice agreed, _"the teeth armor thing sounds really gross, Bowser.."_

"Yeah, it's fucking disgusting, but it seemed to work out," Bowser shrugged, before coming across another sign and what looked to be some kind of small wooden raft floating in the water. He read the handwriting again while standing on the raft, before abruptly punching the rock, careening away from the shore and making his entire body rumble.

Inside Bowser's body, Mario made some distressed noise and hung on tightly to one of the stalks of the strange mushrooms in the Toad Square, an area where Toads had gathered from the conference, while Luigi groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. Starlow and Toadsworth's eyes had widened, and the Star Sprite screamed at Bowser's direction, her brown eyes full of panic while everyone else yelped or hung on for dear life. _"WHAT THE FRESH H-HELL ARE YOU DOING, BOOOOOOSWER?!"_

Back outside, Bowser continued punching rocks as he kept careening around, soon landing on the shore with a gentle grunt before roaring in a happy manner. "Uh, _having fun?_ I found this raft thing called Squid Fit and just got to the other side of the shore! Man, if that's what surfing is like, then I gotta try it more often! Bwahaha!"

 _"Urk... I feel a little sick.."_ the voice groaned, and Bowser rolled his fiery red eyes before sitting down for a moment to rest again. "Heh, need me to stop movin' for a bit? Sorry, I kinda get into that sorta fun stuff sometimes.."

 _"I-it's okay, I'm good!"_ the voice stuttered, and Bowser patted his stomach again.

"Nah, really, I gotta sit down anyway. I don't want leg cramps on top of my flame pipe being out of commission," he insisted, and he remained seated on the beach sand, cooled by the salty breeze that brushed over his hair and made it flap around a bit. Bowser was quiet for some time then, simply enjoying himself and watching the seagulls and Bloopers frolic in the ocean until a question came to his mind. He shifted a bit where he sat and asked the being within his body that question, raising a fire-red eyebrow as he glanced to his soft stomach.

"Ey, whoever you are down there? Have you ever been surfing before? Or near any beaches at all?"

 _"Hm.."_ the voice hesitated. _"Not.. really? Surfing isn't really a thing where I come from.. We don't have beaches or big bodies of water. I kinda don't have arms for that."_

"Hm." Bowser grunted, shifting again and squishing his clawed and slightly roughed up hands into the dampened sand out of boredom. "Are you a Boo, then? A Goomba? You don't _sound_ like a Goomba."

 _"No, I'm not either a Boo or a Goomba.."_ the voice said after a moment of somewhat awkward silence, and he felt a bump against some part of him. _"But I do float like Boos do. And that's all I wish to tell you, anyway."_

Bowser gave a shrug again, going back to glancing over the ocean for a bit with his fiery hues and a calm, serene expression on his normally intimidating face. "That's fair. I won't push into it. ...But we do gotta get going, though. It's not going to do me any good if I stay out in the heat too long, or else I might feel worse from that damned Mushroom.."

 _"I agree. And remember to be cautious,"_ the voice reminded in a stern tone before finally falling silent. Bowser sighed, before standing up again and shaking himself like a dog to get the extra sand out of his scales before walking through an opening in what he assumed was old structures. He, naturally, walked towards some kind of alcove area, but before he even got there he heard a male accented voice call out to him.

 **"Allô!"** the voice called, and Bowser's eyebrow went up in confusion.

"..The _fuck_..?"

He looked on the ground and found a rope tied to some kind of stake in the sand, turning his head and seeing the source of the voice. Its owner spoke again, waving at the bewildered Koopa, sounding glad and a bit out of breath. **"Allô over zere! Monsieur Turtle Bits!"** The voice's owner appeared to be a living Block of some kind, the same golden color as some ? Blocks he stood near, and he had a thick mustache in a  < sort of shape, his eyebrows slanted towards the perfect edges of his face. He also bore gloves, small brown shoes and a cute little red bow, and he waved as hard as he could and yelled loud, trying to keep Bowser's attention towards him. **"Ah, sweet monsieur! 'Elp me! I need 'elp! Helpez-moi, s'il vous plait!"**

It was then that Bowser noticed the pieces of wood floating in the water, and he walked closer, tilting his head at the foreign-sounding being across from him. The language had no apparent similarity to Italian, so he understood mostly none of what the stranger said, his answer reflecting the confusion in his overall body language while he crossed his arms. "Huh? What _language_ is that? And **_what the hell_** are you doing there?"

 **"Ah, bonjour! Why are you...? Non, I am too rude! I must explain, yes!"** the mysterious stranger answered, turning to look at the ? Blocks behind him and continuing to speak in his heavily accented words. **"I am Broque Monsieur, or Mr. Broque if you prefer ze Kingdom Common.. And I ask you to look at zis beauty! I was cleaning zee collection here for my privacy, but.."**

Broque then gestured at the beach with a dismayed expression, or more specifically, the fallen wood that now floated in the salty water below him. **" _Disaster_ , it had stricken moi! Zee bridge to zee beach, it fell into zee water, you see zhat, yes? I cannot swim, for zis body is too heavy to float.."** Broque sighed and drooped like a dying flower, his deep breath coming out quite slowly while his expression became a saddened one, with even his mustache drooping.

"Huh.. That _does_ sound like a shitty thing to happen.." Bowser reluctantly agreed, his tone still one of confusion as he looked to Broque. In his mind, he kind of didn't want to deal with this situation, he couldn't _sit here and rescue some random person while Fawful was out there on the loose, attacking his castle, his children and kidnapping Peach in his dastardly wake.._

**"But, Monsieur.. You 'ave the odor of a gentleman! Oui, it wafts! And a gentleman 'elps the needy! Surely you have zis credo, no?"**

At that, Bowser just made some thin line on his face, as if he was considering saving Monsieur Broque... But then, the Koopa suddenly burst out into bellowing laughter, putting his hands on his hips. " _Bwahaha_! Really? You're asking _me_?

 _Whatever you're smelling sure as **shit** isn't me, pal!_ I don't do charity for any chump! Besides, I'm too busy for this! I got some weirdo trying to unravel my castle and my troops, so if _you'll excuse me--"_ he began, but as soon as he turned around to leave the situation, Broque called out again, hopping impatiently where he stood.

**" _STOP, I BEG YOU!_ Good Monsieur Turtle Bits, please listen to moi! You who I am not smelling, I have to tell you something of importance!"**

Bowser stopped in his tracks, turning his head in suspicion at the hint of Engrish he'd just caught in the other's words. "I said I was busy... **_What do you want?!_** " he yelled from the beach, sounding somewhat irritated now as he balled his fists. "I said I wasn't helping you, so _quit_ yelling at me! **_Let the Super Stupid Brothers help you!_** "

Broque, desparate, took a step closer to the edge of the island he stood on. **"But 'ow can you say that, my friend? You 'ave very much to gain from 'elping moi out of this sticky bit! I will give you zee gratitudes if you 'elp me!"**

Bowser blinked in further confusion and calmed down slightly, then grinned at Broque in the sort of villain-eqsue way that conveyed his slight dorkiness and confidence. Maybe he'd get something out of this after all.. "Oh yeah? What sort of gratitudes?"

The blocky being cheered up and spoke again. **"Ah, your interest piques! Zis is just wonderful, marvelous! Oui, a very hot block spirit sleeps in you, Monsieur Turtle Bits! A blazing, fiery block spirit.. I think you 'ave the powers, oui.."**

 _"Powers?"_ the voice inside Bowser questioned, also intrigued. _"How did he know about Fawful's trick..?"_

"Shh," Bowser chided slightly to his stomach, before gasping at what Broque pulled out in shock. What the block being had in his gloved hand was a jade green Block with a sidewards tornado on it, and it looked like no Block familiar to the Koopa king, causing him to blink and stare at it in wonder.

 ** _"I will give you zis wonderful thing!"_ ** Broque explained, grinning further as he continued to hold it. **"How is zat for graititudes, honh? Zee hot block spirit of destiny cries out from your belly, and I see it cries out for zis very block! It is born for you alone!"**

"Me?!" Bowser sputtered instantly, backing up and stepping on the rope with his eyes bugging out. "W-what?! Uh, that's just a _block_ , pal! It ain't nothing that'll help me!"

 _"Bowser..."_ the voice scolded, and Bowser simply stood there, too shocked to put up any sort of facade nor answer the being inside his body. He was simply baffled that Broque somehow knew of his powers already, wondering if he was like Fawful himself in the weirdness levels he gave off.

**"Well.. Zis is not any ordinary block, honh.. Zis is called a Vacuum Block! Zee block collectors like myself, zey pay one million coins a pop for zis kind of block. It is that very rare, oui! If you hit it, oui, you will know why it is so rare.. You will get many surprises!"**

Bowser now felt curious, crossing his arms again in a thoughtful pose before giving a confirming nod to Broque, making the block collector's face light up with joy with his words. " _Surprises_ , huh? Well, if you're gonna give me that weird-ass Block for helping you out, what do I have to do?"

**"Ah! Thank you, merci! You truly are a gentleman, Monsieur Turtle Bits! So, look at zis that I stand on. A petit island, oui, and it is floating in ze ocean here, right? And you see ze rope on the beach, honh?"**

Bowser nodded to confirm he was hearing the other right, taking his foot off the rope and picking it up in his hands before giving it a tug. "Yup. So? What else, then?"

 **"Why, I think if you pull ze rope, it could pull ze island to the shore, and zen I could be able to leave zis island!"** Broque finished, giving a pose of some kind.

" _Bwahaha_! So ya need me to pull the rope, eh? Ha! _Gimme a damn challenge, pal, I could do that shit in my sleep_!" Bowser bellowed confidently, getting himself into a careful stance and grasping the rope as tight as he could manage, feeling his claws dig into the fibers of the rope. "Here's a taste of Bowser power, baby!" And as soon as he'd uttered that, he began to pull as hard as he could at the rope, grunting and attempting to walk backwards.

Back in Bowser's body, as the Koopa monarch up there had begun to try and pull the island towards the shore, Starlow exhaled and examined the inside area, spotting a shaking, almost glowing area. "Hey, part of Bowser is reacting, guys! Let's go here!"

The bros soon enough reached the entrance to the area via some kind of passageway, and Starlow caught up to them, floating back to their eye level and looking around. "Okay, this looks to be Bowser's arm muscle region.. Looks like his muscles are reacting. From what I heard, he's probably pulling on something too heavy for him.."

"Huh?" Luigi's voice called out in an echoey way in the chamber, looking at some blue cannon thing curiously before walking to it and giving it a pat. "Starlow, I found something weird.. Maybe if I hit it with my hammer...?"

To test it out, the green-wearing Italian soon brandished his hammer and smacked the cannon, with all his strength, emitting a loud BONK and soon apparently activating it and sending out a ball of light towards the muscle. The ball of light turned orange-red like Bowser's hair and bounced off Bowser's arm muscle, flying towards a cautious Mario, and Starlow's soft brown eyes bugged out again while she cried out in panic.

" _M-mario! **Look out!**_ "

Thankfully, Mario reacted in time and slammed the hammer into the ball of light, sending the thing back into Bowser's arm muscle, the muscle seemingly absorbing the light and growing in size. Starlow looked confused at what transpired and she looked from the bros to the throbbing muscle and back with strong bewilderment. "H-huh, what? What happened just now?"

"Ah! It's firing again!" Luigi said suddenly, and indeed the teal cannon fired another ball of light against the muscle, and once more, Mario hit it, this time turning the light green and making Luigi hit it. It became absorbed by the fleshy orange muscle a second time, and it became huge, almost taking up the entire space this time.

Bowser, on the outside, felt a weird sense of strength, swearing for a moment he'd seen a flash of magic or something near his arm as he tugged at the rope. "H-huh? I feel... **_Stronger_**! Hah! _C'mon, Bowser.....!_ "

It then clicked for Starlow back inside the Koopa's insides, and she gasped before flying behind Mario for safety. "I think I know what's going on, actually! Those light balls seem to be absorbed by Bowser's muscles, and it's making them grow to a huge size! Maybe you should hit them more.."

"Looks like it," Luigi confirmed, holding his hammer in a stance. "Ready, big bro?"

Mario nodded, and also took up a stance of his own, motioning for Starlow to go behind him. _"Stai indietro, per favore!"_

Starlow complied right before more balls of light shot out towards the cannon, hiding behind Mario's hat as he and Luigi hit the balls of light (adrenaline, she supposed) in a pattern, each one being absorbed by Bowser's muscles. Suddenly, the muscles grew large and angry after only a minute of that, a pulse of bright light blinding the trio.

And just then, on the outside, Bowser pulled the island to him in one swift movement, making Broque and most of the larger ? Blocks go flying.. and his poor body, apparently having exerted too much, fell to the sand with the rope, and everything seemed to go black for Bowser, losing consciousness as he hit the soft beach sand, sweating with effort.

 

> **_\-- To be continued --_ **


End file.
